Can Beyoncé take Nashville? Well, no one loves a diva like country music

Beyoncé’s gone country. In anticipation of her new album “Renaissance Part II,” the iconic entertainer has released two new country singles. “Texas Hold ‘Em” just debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Beyoncé’s gone country. In anticipation of her forthcoming new album, the iconic entertainer has released two singles with some serious twang. “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” have soared up the streaming charts, with the former debuting at Number 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart today. When one of the biggest artists in the world decides to shift genres (though Beyoncé’s work has always alluded to her Southern roots), it’s bound to grind a few gears. This is the same Beyoncé who has been R&B royalty for decades, who enraged critics with her unapologetically Black Super Bowl halftime show in 2016, whose 2023 Renaissance World Tour was a traveling showcase of glamor, pride and diversity of all kinds. She’s an unusual fit for the slowly evolving White, conservative world of country. Or is she? After all, no one loves a diva like country music. Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood are just the beginning: Since women broke into the country scene in the ’50s, they’ve been taking us to heaven with their bouffant hair, blinding us with rhinestones and spangles and singing songs that celebrate the power and complexity of womanhood. What makes a diva different than any other performer? Of course there’s a look, epitomized in the confident, authentic glamor of Dolly Parton, Tina Turner and Mariah Carey. “Diva” was originally an opera term for female singers whose talent and fame made them nearly divine in the eyes of their admirers. The expectation of a big powerful voice has carried through the times in Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and Carrie Underwood. (Show-stopping talent in general is a given.) A diva is timeless, often used to describe women with long, storied careers, such as Cher, Celine Dion, Reba McEntire and Gloria Estefan. There are other definitions that complicate the term.