This is not Texas. In fact, a country music radio station in Oklahoma will play two new Beyoncé country songs, “Texas Hold 'Em” and “16 Carriages,” after the station cleared up confusion over why the Super Bowl releases didn't have transmission time.
In a letter Tuesday, the radio station's general manager, Roger Harris, said a fan asking for the songs that the station “does not play Beyoncé on KYKC since we are a country music station.” And the response, seen as “blatant racism and discrimination” against Beyoncé, went viral among her lively fan base known as the Beyhive, who called on the station to reconsider her decision.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the station suggested that it was all a misunderstanding and that they “apparently were the subject of a huge campaign to add the song.” A representative for KYKC told EW that the station added the songs to its rotation as soon as it received them, citing a delay from Sony Music, which released the singles under Columbia Records. A representative for the station's parent company, SCORE, added that Harris “didn't know” that the “Renaissance” artist had entered her country music era by releasing the “Act II” singles.
“[U]Until now, she hasn't been a 'country artist.' So… we responded to the email the same way we would have responded to someone requesting a Rolling Stones song on our country station,” Harris told EW.
In a follow up tweet On Tuesday, the Alda, Oklahoma, station said it would play “Texas Hold 'Em” after receiving “many calls” requesting it.
In a statement to The Times, Harris said the station “actually didn't even have the song until around 2 p.m.” on Tuesday.
“Because we are a small market station, we do not provide service to larger radio stations,” Harris added. “We've always played Beyoncé on two of our other stations, KXFC-FM (a Top 40 station) and KADA-FM (an adult hits station), so we're big fans. We just didn't know about her foray into this genre…plus as I mentioned, we didn't even have the song.
“With a lot of effort, we located the song yesterday around 2 pm and it is now in rotation on THREE of our stations, including our country station, KYKC.”
Not surprisingly, even Bey faced some resistance to her latest move. Country music has long had a history plagued by racism and black artists. Bey herself apparently experienced that firsthand in 2016 when her vibrant song “Daddy Lessons,” which highlights the Houston native's Southern roots with lyrics about her father and former manager, Mathew Knowles, references to the Bible, the Second Amendment and fire weapons, was rejected. by the Recording Academy Country Music Committee for a Grammy Award nomination.
The “Hold Up” and “Single Ladies” singer had reportedly submitted the song, which comes from her album “Lemonade,” for consideration in the country genre, according to the Associated Press.
Proving that “Daddy Lessons” was unashamedly a country song, Beyoncé performed the song during the 2016 Country Music Association Awards alongside the Chicks, and later released a cover of the song with the country trio.
Meanwhile, in New York, hitmaker Bey was back on stage, fully committed to wearing her now-signature cowboy hat. She made a surprise front row appearance at the Luar show in a sparkly ensemble and was accompanied by her mother, Tina Knowles, and her sister Solange. The trio stepped out in Brooklyn to support Solange's son, Daniel “Julez” Smith Jr., during his modeling debut at New York Fashion Week.
