More than 27,000 people have signed a petition demanding country radio stations play Beyoncé’s new songs.
The Grammy-winning artist dropped two country singles in February, but only eight of the 150 stations that report to Billboard’s Country Airplay chart played the song “Texas Hold ‘Em” a day after its release. There were no stations that reported playing “16 Carriages.”
The petition, created by Jensine Gomez, attributes this to “racism, revisionist history, and gatekeeping.”
“First, Apple Music categorized the songs in the ‘Pop music’ category when the songs are clearly country. And when fans started requesting Beyoncé’s new songs at their local country stations, many of their requests were rejected,” the petition states.
One of those stations received backlash after responding to a fan’s request saying, “We do not play Beyonce on KYKC as we are a country music station.”
The station eventually issued a statement, saying that it has played Beyoncé for 25 years on sister stations KXFC and KADA-FM.
“We honestly did not know about this new country release,” the station said. “Finally about 2pm we got hold of it. We love it and we love Beyonce.”
The petition, however, is demanding the country music industry reckon with its anti-Blackness.
In a University of Ottawa and SongData study of more than 11,000 songs played on country radio from 2002 to 2020, artists of color represented just 3 percent of airplay.
The petition also points to the history of the banjo, a central instrument in country music that originated in Africa and was brought to the United States by enslaved African people.
But the banjo then began to be used in minstrel shows by white Americans wearing blackface.
“The country music industry must finally reckon with its own racism and anti-Blackness, acknowledge the roots of the country music genre in Black history, and celebrate Black artists reclaiming a genre they birthed,” Gomez said. “Correctly categorizing and honoring Beyoncé’s new songs as country is just one small step toward progress, and an opportunity for us to keep pushing, educating, and fighting for change that will pave the way for other Black country artists for generations to come.”
