Cowboy Carter (stylized in all caps; also referred to as Act II: Cowboy Carter) is the eighth studio album by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. It was released on March 29, 2024, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. A concept album, Cowboy Carter is the second of a planned trilogy of albums, following Renaissance (2022). Beyoncé conceived the album as a journey through a reinvention of Americana, spotlighting the overlooked contributions of Black pioneers to American musical and cultural history.
A genre-blending album rooted in country music, Cowboy Carter is influenced by Beyoncé's upbringing in Texas, incorporating eclectic styles of music of the Southern United States. Conceptually, the album is presented as a radio broadcast, with country singers Dolly Parton, Linda Martell, and Willie Nelson acting as disc jockeys. The album's songs feature rising Black country artists such as Shaboozey, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, and Willie Jones. The music is driven by a range of acoustic instruments played by musicians including Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and Nile Rodgers, among others.
Cowboy Carter was met with universal acclaim and appeared on multiple year-end lists; critics stated that the album's genre experimentation, expansive scope and eclectic references aided an ambitious reimagining of Americana and country through the lens of their Black roots. At the 67th Grammy Awards, Beyoncé became the first Black woman in 25 years to win Album of the Year and the first Black artist to win Best Country Album; the album's third single, "II Most Wanted", won Best Country Duo/Group Performance. The album increased the listenership of country music, drove cultural conversations on Black musicians' place within the genre, boosted the careers of rising country artists, and increased the popularity of Western wear and culture.
Cowboy Carter debuted at number one in several countries and broke multiple chart and streaming records. In the United States, it topped the Billboard 200 and was Beyoncé's first to top the Top Country Albums chart, selling 407,000 album-equivalent units. The album was supported by three singles, "Texas Hold 'Em", "16 Carriages", and "II Most Wanted", with the first becoming Beyoncé's ninth US number-one single and the first country song by a Black woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts. To support the album, Beyoncé embarked on the Cowboy Carter Tour from April 28 to July 26, 2025.
Background and development Beyoncé was born and raised in Houston, where the city's cowboy heritage and country and zydeco music played a role in her upbringing. She listened to country music from an early age, particularly from her paternal grandfather, and her family attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo every year in western clothing. She performed at the Rodeo four times between 2001 and 2007, and has continued to celebrate her country and Southern roots throughout her career.
Beyoncé first released an original country song in 2016: the track "Daddy Lessons" on her sixth studio album, Lemonade. Beyoncé, together with the Chicks (who had previously covered the song), performed the track at the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 2, 2016. The performance was largely praised by critics and gave the Country Music Association Awards their highest viewership in history; however, it was also met with backlash, with some country music fans criticizing Beyoncé's attendance and claiming she did not belong in the genre. The Country Music Association deleted all promotional posts about Beyoncé's performance, which was seen by some observers as succumbing to the pressure from conservative and racist viewers. In December 2016, The Recording Academy's country music committee rejected "Daddy Lessons" for consideration for a Grammy Award, with publications reporting that the song was not seen as being "country enough".
This experience led to the creation of Cowboy Carter. Beyoncé explained how it was made clear to her that she was not welcome in the country music space, which encouraged her to explore the musical history of the genre rather than letting the critics force her out of it. She delved into the history of country music and Western culture and researched its African-American roots. She studied "our rich musical archive" and learned from educators who had long advocated for a re-education on the Black roots of country music. She also read that, historically, half of cowboys were Black, which made her realize how much of the Black, brown, and Native cowboy stories are missing in American history. This was the inspiration for her 2021 "Ivy Park Rodeo" clothing collection. Following this research, Beyoncé conceived Cowboy Carter as a journey through a reinvention of Americana, in which she redefines its boundaries and spotlights overlooked contributions of African Americans to diverse musical genres, Southern and Western culture, and American history. Collaborator Rhiannon Giddens said Beyoncé did not intend to create a typical crossover country album, but instead wanted to explore her family's roots through music.
Cowboy Carter was over five years in the making. Beyoncé began to write the album in 2019, then recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she described as her most creative period. The album forms "Act II" of a trilogy project that Beyoncé recorded during this period. The first act, Renaissance (2022), is primarily a house and disco record highlighting and celebrating the Black progenitors of dance music, leading some to believe that each album of the trilogy would aim to explore the Black roots of a different musical genre. Cowboy Carter was originally intended to be released before Renaissance, but Beyoncé changed the order in response to the pandemic. Between 2020 and 2024, Dolly Parton often said that she would like Beyoncé to cover her song "Jolene".
While working on the album, she reached out to Miley Cyrus to collaborate with her on Cowboy Carter. Cyrus presented her with "Easy Lover" and "Shotgun Rider", and Beyoncé chose the latter, renaming it "II Most Wanted".
Composition
Beyoncé recorded around 100 songs for the album. Each song is its own reimagined version of a Western film, including Five Fingers for Marseilles (2017), Urban Cowboy (1980), The Hateful Eight (2015), Space Cowboys (2000), The Harder They Fall (2021), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Thelma & Louise (1991) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).
Rooted in country music, Cowboy Carter is a genre-spanning album that blends various styles of American roots music, in particular that of the American South. Publications categorized it as country pop, country, outlaw country, pop, western, country-soul, blues, hip-hop, R&B, and Americana, It further explores elements of folk, and various other styles that Beyoncé listened to when growing up in Texas, including zydeco, rock and roll, psychedelic soul, rhythm and blues, funk, gospel, bluegrass, opera, Southern hip-hop, rock, honky-tonk, and go-go. The album also fuses in more contemporary and international musical styles, such as house, Jersey club, flamenco, funk carioca, fado and Irish folk. Beyoncé's experimentation with musical styles on Cowboy Carter aims to break down the limitations placed on genre-based music, in the service of redefining the boundaries of Americana. The album's genre experimentation received significant discussion in the media, with publications describing the album as "genre-busting", "genre-defying", "genre-bending" and "genre-blending". Music critics differed in their classification of the album: some simply defined it as "country" or "country-and-Western", while others opined that the album is not a country album per se but uses country signifiers to explore various genres. Beyoncé herself said about Cowboy Carter: "This ain't a Country album. This is a 'Beyoncé' album." USA Todays Kofi Mframa said this description was a "resounding testament to Beyoncé's long history of refusal to adhere to the traditional confines of genre".
The album is presented as a broadcast by a fictional Texas radio station, with country singers Dolly Parton, Linda Martell and Willie Nelson acting as radio DJs. The album features rising country artists Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey and Willie Jones. The album is cyclical, with the final note looping seamlessly into the beginning of the first track (which begins "Nothing really ends") in the same manner as James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1939), according to The Washington Post Shane O'Neill. The album features a range of acoustic instruments played by musicians including Stevie Wonder on harmonica, Paul McCartney and Nile Rodgers on guitar, and Rhiannon Giddens on banjo.
Promotion and release Lead singles
On February 11, 2024, during Super Bowl LVIII, Verizon aired a commercial starring Beyoncé entitled "Can't B Broken", in which she tried to "break the Internet" through increasingly outlandish means, such as releasing a jazz saxophone record, performing on top of Sphere in Las Vegas, building an artificial intelligence (AI) version of herself, launching a collection of Barbie-like dolls dubbed "BarBey", announcing her candidacy for a fictional political position, and flying into space for a performance. After all of the ideas proved unsuccessful, Beyoncé concluded the commercial by remarking: "Okay, they ready. Drop the new music".
After the commercial aired, Beyoncé released a teaser video for Act II on Instagram. Directed by British artist and filmmaker Nadia Lee Cohen, the video pays homage to Paris, Texas (1984), references border blasters and features Chuck Berry's 1955 track "Maybellene". The same day, the singer's official website was updated to announce her eighth studio album, with the placeholder name Act II, scheduled for release on March 29. Subsequently, the album's two lead singles, "Texas Hold 'Em" and "16 Carriages", were simultaneously made available for digital download and streaming. On March 12, Beyoncé announced the album would be titled Cowboy Carter via a teaser poster of a western saddle with a sash. She also listed album merchandise, including limited-edition CDs with a bonus track, T-shirts, and vinyl variants in red, white, blue, and standard black.
Album release
On March 19, 2024, Beyoncé revealed the album cover via Instagram, and said there would be "surprises" and collaborations on the album. On March 20, she revealed a limited edition exclusive cover, wearing a sash that reads "act ii BEYINCÉ", referencing the generational family surname of her mother, Tina Knowles. Taglines and film stills for the album were projected onto various museums in New York City. One was an unauthorized projection onto the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which responded good-naturedly by posting Franz Marc's 1910 painting Three Horses Drinking with the caption "This ain't Texas" in reference to "Texas Hold 'Em". Beyoncé also posted co-ordinates to the museum on her Instagram story.
On March 27, Beyoncé posted a graphic to Instagram of the album's tracklist inspired by vintage posters from the Chitlin' Circuit era. It revealed collaborations with Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, as well as a cover of Parton's "Jolene" and the song "The Linda Martell Show". The latter song references Linda Martell, the first Black woman to achieve commercial success in the country genre.
The CD release was issued in four variants, each with a different rear cover depicting Beyoncé. It was released in Japan on March 29 and on April 12 in Europe. After the album's release, fans reported that their pre-ordered physical vinyl and CD copies were missing numerous tracks, with some asking for refunds.
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