Mickey Guyton hopes Beyonce can inspire change for black artists in the country music genre.
The Grammy-winning star recently released Cowboy Carter, which has been widely labelled as a country album.
And Mickey has now suggested that the record could have a huge, long-lasting impact on the genre.
The 40-year-old star told the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column: ‘I think that a lot of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) boards are closing, and… that’s across all the entertainment industry.
‘So, I hope her doing this continues the conversation,’ said the artist.
‘And there’s a lot of excitement about it, which there should be, and this amazing album that she’s written. So I hope it stays.’
Mickey Guyton, seen left on Sunday, hopes Beyonce, right, can inspire change for black artists in the country music genre, she told PageSix
The 40-year-old star told the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column: ‘I think that a lot of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) boards are closing, and … that’s across all the entertainment industry. ‘So, I hope her doing this continues the conversation,’ said the artist
Mickey has always been open and honest about the issues she’s faced as a black artist in the country genre.
And in recent months, various music stars have voiced their support for Beyonce’s country music, including Carlene Carter, who thinks the genre is ‘lucky’ to have her.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Carlene explained: ‘I loved that she came out with her name as Carter because she’s married to Jay-Z, and I thought, she’s from Texas, she wanted to make a country record, nobody should give her any poo poo about it, you know?
‘But they did and I was like, “OK, y’all can just shut the hell up because she is Beyonce and we are lucky to have her even want to be in the vicinity of us.”‘
Carlene also observed that country music is constantly evolving.
She said: ‘It may not fit the categories of what people think country is [but] let me tell you, I’ve been around a long time and country has changed constantly.
‘It changes constantly, and it’s gone from where she is at to where I’ve been to where my mother’s been to my grandmother [and] all the way back again to somebody else that’s gonna follow Beyonce.
‘ It’s always gonna be there, so that’s what country is.’
In recent months, various music stars have voiced their support for Beyonce’s country music, including Carlene Carter, who thinks the genre is ‘lucky’ to have her
Last week Beyonce shared her thoughts on her new album Cowboy Carter.
The Texas-born star said her first country album is the best she has ever made. ‘The joy of creating music is that there are no rules,’ said Beyonce. ‘The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity.’
The mother of three added that with artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming she ‘wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old ones.
‘I didn’t want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and organs perfectly in tune.’
She added that she wanted some of the songs to be ‘raw’ and she ‘leaned into folk.’
The star ended with: ‘All the sounds were so organic and human, everyday things like the wind, snaps and even the sound of birds and chickens, the sounds of nature,’ she said.
Beyonce shared her thoughts on her new album Cowboy Carter last week. The Texas-born star said her first country album is the best she has ever made
‘The joy of creating music is that there are no rules,’ said Beyonce. ‘The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity’
The press release reveals the inspiration behind the album and how each ‘song is its own version of a reimagined Western film.’
Some of the films that lent inspiration include The Hateful Eight, Space Cowboys, The Harder They Fall, and the recent Oscar-nominated movie Killers of the Flower Moon.
The album is considered ‘a declarative frequency and academic shift, as the world prepares to shift again, that redefines and rebuilds what is Country and Americana, and who gets to be included.’
Beyoncé’s eighth studio album landed across nine different genres on US music charts including Pop, Hot AC, Country, Rhythmic, Urban, and R&B, and making history with Beyoncé becoming the first Black female artist to reach No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 1 on the Hot 100 Chart with a Country song.
It also spent four weeks at the top of the UK music charts.
The album is about genres, all of them, while deeply rooted in Country.
‘I didn’t want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and organs perfectly in tune.’ She added that she wanted some of the songs to be ‘raw’ and she ‘leaned into folk’
‘This is the work of an artist who thrives in her freedom to grow, expand, and create limitlessly. It makes no apologies, and seeks no permission in elevating, amplifying, and redefining the sounds of music, while dismantling accepted false norms about Americana culture. It pays homage to the past, honoring musical pioneers in Country, Rock, Classical, and Opera,’ the press release added.
The album is a cornucopia of sounds that Beyoncé loves, and grew up listening to, between visits and eventually performances at the Houston Rodeo – Country, original Rhythm & Blues, Blues, Zydeco, and Black Folk, it was added.
‘The album wraps itself in pure instrumentation in a celebratory authentic gumbo of sounds using among others, the accordion, harmonica, washboard, acoustic guitar, bass ukulele, pedal steel guitar, a Vibra-Slap, the mandolin, fiddle, Hammond B3 organ, tack piano, and the banjo. There’s also plenty of handclaps, horseshoe steps, boot stomps on hardwood floors and yes, those are Beyoncé’s nails as percussion,’ the release added.