Beyoncé Is the First Black Woman to Earn a Country No. 1

Beyoncé has an ace in her hand. The superstar logged her first country No. 1 with “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which debuted atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart on February 20. Beyoncé is the first Black woman to ever hold the top spot on the chart and just the second woman to debut at No. 1 (after Taylor Swift). “Texas” also debuted at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, Beyoncé’s highest-ever debut. That all happened off just four days of tracking, since Beyoncé released the song on a Sunday night in the middle of the Super Bowl. (After a full seven days of numbers, she’s likely to rise to No. 1 on the Hot 100 next week.) “16 Carriages,” the other single from her upcoming Act II, entered the Hot 100 at No. 38 and Hot Country Songs at No. 9.

Beyoncé’s first country No. 1 comes just days after the same song debuted at No. 54 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. Confused? It’s because the Hot Country Songs chart is a “multi-metric” chart, measuring a mix of sales, streams, and radio airplay, just like the Hot 100. Country Airplay, as the name implies, measures only radio. Billboard only charted country songs based off radio play until 2012, when it changed the chart’s name to Hot Country Songs and spun off the Country Airplay chart as well. While “Texas” is only starting at radio, it had a dominant opening in streaming and sales (to the tune of 19.2 million streams and 39,000 downloads), leading it to the top of the Hot Country Songs chart. But Hot Country Songs still doesn’t have as much pull in old-fashioned Nashville as Country Airplay, where songs can regularly take half a year to climb to No. 1. Just ask Bey’s friend Swift, whose recent success on Hot Country Songs with songs like “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” (No. 1), “no body, no crime” (No. 2), and “I Bet You Think About Me” (No. 3) hasn’t translated to much radio traction.

But a hit’s a hit. And with her first country hit, Beyoncé how has No. 1s in six separate multi-metric Billboard charts: Country Songs, R&B Songs, R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Dance/Electronic Songs, Latin Songs, and Gospel Songs. Only Justin Bieber has more genre charts covered with seven. Let’s see if she can tie that record with Act III.

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