Beyonce Texas Hold Em & 16 Carriages

Oklahoma country radio station plays Beyoncé after backlash against rejected request

During the Super Bowl, Beyoncé announced her new album Act II and shared two new songs that many people agree are country songs. That prompted one fan, Justin McGowan, to request that the small Oklahoma country music station KYKC play her new single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” and station manager Roger Harris rejected McGowan’s request in an email that read: “We do not play Beyoncé at KYKC as we are a country music station.” McGowan then posted a screenshot of the response on social media, and wrote, “This station needs to be held accountable for their blatant racism and discrimination against Beyoncé.” It ignited a backlash that was too big for KYKC to ignore.

McGowan also prompted people to email the radio station and request the song, and Harris tells the New York Times that the station received hundreds of emails and phone calls criticizing them for refusing to play the song. “I’ve never experienced anything in my career like the amount of communications that we received in support of the song,” he said. They ended up playing the song three times on Tuesday night (2/13).

“We haven’t played her on our country station because she’s not a country artist,” Harris continued. “Well, now I guess she wants to be, and we’re all for it.”

Beyoncé previously submitted her 2016 country song “Daddy Lessons” from Lemonade to the Grammys’ country category, and it was reportedly rejected by the Recording Academy’s country music committee. She did end up performing the song at the Country Music Awards with the Chicks that year, and was met with backlash.

Similar debates around race and what counts as country music broke out in 2019 when Billboard removed Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” from the Hot Country Songs chart after the song reached number 19.

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