Last March, Beyoncé dropped her eighth studio album Cowboy Carter. This project explored the superstar’s deep Texas country music roots. It also touched on the music icon’s personal narratives.

People ‘line danced’ to Texas Hold ‘Em. Others cried to 16 Carriages. But there’s more to Beyoncé’s country era than just the two lead singles.

Whether you are an honorary member of the Bey Hive or just a casual music listener, you might want some bits of interesting facts about Queen Bey’s latest 27-track masterpiece.

Cowboy Carter was meant to be released before Renaissance

In a press release, Beyoncé revealed that she pushed back Cowboy Carter to put out Renaissance first. She believed, at the time, that “there was too much heaviness in the world.”

“We wanted to dance. We deserved to dance. But I had to trust God’s timing,” she said. Released in July 2022, Renaissance delivered club hits like Break My Soul and Cuff It, which made huge waves on TikTok.

On the other hand, Bey also said that Cowboy Carter took five years to create. She added that films such as Urban Cowboy and Five Fingers For Marseilles inspired the album.

The album includes a ‘magnificent’ Beatles cover

“Take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life, you are only waiting for this moment to arise.”

On Cowboy Carter’s second track Blackbiird, Beyoncé sang alongside country artists Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, and Tiera Kennedy. This ballad was originally written by the legendary band, The Beatles.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Paul McCartney (@paulmccartney)

In an Instagram post, The Beatles’ vocalist Paul McCartney himself said that he is “so happy” with Beyoncé’s cover.

“I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place,” McCartney said.

Beyoncé puts her own flair on a Dolly Parton classic

Jolene is one of Dolly Parton’s many beloved hits. Even Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus once did a cover, too. This time, Queen Bey turned the classic into an empowering anthem.

Right off the bat, Beyoncé changed the lyrics to “I’m warning you don’t come for my man.” Parton originally wrote “I’m begging of you please don’t take my man.”

In another verse, Queen Bey warned Jolene yet again. The lyrics went like this: “I can easily understand why you’re attracted to my man. But you don’t want this smoke, so shoot your shot with someone else.” Yikes. 

Of course, Dolly P had nothing but a hilarious reaction to Honey B’s rendition.

Indeed, the country classic immediately turned into a cautionary tale instead of a desperate plea.

Yes, that’s Caro Mio Ben, Dolly’s nails, and Stevie’s harmonica

One thing about Beyoncé: she loves good references and good samples.

On the eleventh track called Daughter, she sang Caro Mio Ben (My Dear Beloved) by Tommaso Giordani. Many classical musicians and opera singers around the world know the said Italian concert piece by heart.

Additionally, the smooth transition between Riiverdance and Tyrant featured the sound of Beyoncé’s acrylic fingernails clashing against each other. Apparently, this was a reference to Dolly Parton’s organic percussions during a 1987 interview and in her song “9 to 5.”

Moreover, Beyoncé also revealed in the 2024 iHeart Radio Awards that Stevie Wonder did the harmonica for her Jolene cover. In Cowboy Carter, Queen Bey also pays homage to Linda Martell and Willie Nelson.

There’s more to Beyoncé and Levi’s

In the seventeenth track of the album called Levii’s Jeans, Beyoncé gave a shout-out to the global denim fashion brand.

Days after Cowboy Carter’s release, the stocks of Levi’s went up by 20%. Further, the brand’s CFO Harmit Singh said that Beyoncé helped them gain around 1.5 billion impressions.

“There’s no better person who’s what we call the center of culture, the cultural czar, than somebody like Beyoncé, and having called us out, her song’s gaining momentum,” Singh explained.

Looking back, Levi’s jeans have been a staple in Bey’s wardrobe. This includes her ‘501’ cut-out shorts for Coachella 2018.  Also, numerous pictures of Destiny’s Child wearing denim overalls showed up online.

Indeed, Beyoncé does love her Levi’s jeans.

The album is a response to Beyoncé feeling unwelcome in the country genre

Beyoncé is no stranger to controversy. In one of her Instagram posts, the singer looked back to one moment in her career when she “did not feel welcomed.”

Back in 2016, Beyoncé performed the song Daddy Lessons with The Dixie Chicks at the Country Music Awards. In a Howard Stern interview, The Dixie Chicks’ vocalist Natalie Maines recalled how the public reacted to the performance.

“They (CMA) started getting people bombarding their website with comments. So, they took her down, they took our performance down,” Maines said.

Eight years after the incident, Cowboy Carter debuted number 1 on the Billboard Country Charts with Beyoncé as the first-ever Black woman to achieve such feat.

Time and again, Beyoncé reinvents herself through her music. Fans continue to hint that the next album might be a rock album. Maybe it’s a gospel one. Maybe it’s another R&B project. Who knows, really? Queen Bey is never the predictable kind of superstar.