The Sunday Mail
BEYONCÉ has become the first black woman to top Billboard’s “Hot Country Songs” chart.
“Texas Hold ‘Em” soared to number one after the musician released it simultaneously with the single “16 Carriages” in a surprise album announcement during the Super Bowl.
The track also made her the second solo female artiste to have a song go straight in at number one.
Taylor Swift was the first in 2021 with her rerecordings of “Love Story” and “All Too Well”.
Beyoncé’s chart-topping country track makes her the first woman to reach number one on both the “Hot Country Songs” and “Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs” since the lists began in 1958.
Ray Charles, Billy Ray Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Morgan Wallen are the only other artistes to have achieved this feat.
The new chart positions, announced last week, account for the seven days leading up to February 15. Beyoncé’s song, which was released on February 11, achieved the number one slot after just four days of tracking.
In that time, it was downloaded 39 000 times and streamed 19,2 million times in the United States.Both “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” will feature on the singer’s ninth studio album, “Renaissance Act II”, which will be released on March 29.
Country music has often had a fraught relationship with black musicians.
An Oklahoma country radio station initially refused to play a request for “Texas Hold ‘Em”, which sparked a viral campaign on X.
In 2019, rapper Lil Nas X’s viral record Old Town Road, which featured country star Billy Ray Cyrus, was removed from Billboard’s country chart after it hit the number one spot. Billboard said the song was not country enough, despite lyrics about horse-riding and banjo instrumentation.
In a statement at the time, Billboard said: “While Old Town Road incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”
Beyoncé’s 2016 country-inspired track “Daddy Lessons” from the album “Lemonade” was also deemed ineligible for the country Grammys by the Recording Academy’s country music committee. — Wires
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Tupac Shakur’s trial delayed
The trial of a former gang leader accused of killing rapper Tupac Shakur has been pushed back by several months.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis had been due to stand trial in June after being arrested last year — some 27 years after the hip-hop star’s death.
He is said to be the only person still alive who was in the vehicle from which shots were fired in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 7, 1996. Tupac died from his injuries six days later. After a recent change in his legal representation, Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny acknowledged in a hearing last week that his lawyer, Carl Arnold, is new to the case and that prosecutors are still providing evidentiary material to the defence.
The trial start date has now been reset from June 3 to November 4. — Wires
Davis has been jailed on US$750 000 bail since his arrest in September.
He expects to be able to raise the 10 percent needed to obtain a bond to be released to house arrest, Mr Arnold has said.
Davis told Judge Kierny that people who are willing to help him post bail do not want to appear in court for a “source hearing” to show that the money was legally obtained.
“I have got family that is hesitant to come in here and help me out on the bail because of the media and the circus that is going on,” he said.
Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was also injured in the shooting that killed Tupac.
Knight, now 58, is in prison for an unrelated crime in the Los Angeles area in 2015.
Six months after Tupac’s death, his East Coast rap rival Notorious BIG was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, and the mystery surrounding their unsolved murders has led to countless theories and headlines ever since.
Davis, 60, was arrested outside his home in Henderson, Nevada, but is originally from Compton, California.
He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. — Wires
