Beyoncé and Dua Lipa have swapped mirrorballs for rhinestones, while new stars such as Shaboozey and Dasha are making hay with uptempo hoedowns. Even the UK is enjoying its first rodeo – but can it last?
Three weeks ago, A Bar Song went to No 1 on the US country chart, displacing Texas Hold ’Em – the first time in history there had been two consecutive country No 1s by Black artists. It’s all a far cry from even a few years ago, whenjust as it was about to reach the top on the spurious grounds that it did not include “enough elements of today’s country music”.
She tells me she started out writing country songs as a teenager in California, shifted to straight-ahead pop on her 2023 debut album, Dirty Blonde, then shifted back again after its release. “I played the first album release show for Dirty Blonde and I remember getting off stage and thinking: that was not me, that was a total act I just put on. And that’s when I fired my management, fired my label, took everything to ground zero.
Hannaby noted a sudden rise in country artists’ streaming figures “three months before Beyoncé’s album came out, so it definitely wasn’t triggered by that”. It was driven by a handful of Nashville superstars who seemed to be crossing into the mainstream consciousness – what she calls “a super-spike for Morgan Wallen,. Both Combs and Wallen sold out multiple nights at the O2 last year.” Controversy embroiled Wallen in 2021 when he was filmed, but he apologised and it didn’t harm his career.