Martin Luther King III, the son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., speaks during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. Beyoncé accepts the Innovator Award onstage during the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartRadio, listeners are lauding Beyoncé's genre-bending project that pays homage to civil rights and Black Americans' legacy in country music.
Beyoncé invited Black country singers Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts to join her on the cover."I'm grateful because she brings all of this to me personally but also in our home. And it's joyous, It's positive. It's reaffirming," Martin Luther King III tells Axios. "Beyoncé is bringing the conversation to the actual origins of country music in the black community," King III's wife, Arndrea Waters King, tells Axios.became the first Black woman to co-host the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2021 and her song "Black Like Me" garnered attention during the 2020 national racial justice protests.