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With Beyoncé, black country singers were finally highlighted

“In Music City, with dreams and high-heeled boots, singing to a blue-eyed crowd, will they want me too?”: A mixed-race woman hums this verse on a stage in the US country capital of Nashville. .Julie Williams, a 26-year-old artist, talks about her childhood in the United States’ South still haunted by the past of slavery, and her struggle to establish herself in this Tennessee town nicknamed “Music City.” Where careers are made or broken by white men. Beyoncé, one of the biggest stars of the moment, released a country album Friday that highlights the long history of black artists in the wildly popular musical genre in the United States. “Who can’t wait to discover Beyonce’s new country album?” Julie Williams speaks to thunderous applause. “Are so many white girls feeling this way all the time?” She continues: “When you see someone who’s at the top of their game and they tear it up, you’re like, wow, that could be it. me+, that’s great! Historic” to “Black Country.” To preface, the singer talks to AFP backstage. Julie Williams is one of 200 members of the Black Opry, a group formed three years ago to bring the voices of black performers into the genre. Seen as reserved for white artists, from country to folk. “I’ve always been a big fan of country music and I’ve always felt lonely,” says Black Opry founder Holly G, who says it’s not “representative” enough, “especially as a black and queer woman”. “Neither among artists, nor among fans, nor in marketing.” “When I started the Black Opry,” she continues, “I realized that we’re all there, but we don’t have the same platform or opportunities. Our white peers.” – “What’s the difference?” -Beyoncé’s new album could change things, says Charles Hughes, author of a book on country and racial issues in the United States’ South. People say, “Cool, Beyonce started playing country, there’s a bunch of other artists to listen to,” a Memphis researcher told AFP. United States: The banjo, for example, was one of the instruments brought by exiled African slaves to the Americas and the Caribbean in the 1600s. . However, black artists have historically been excluded from the music genre and contemporary country perpetuates the image of white, macho, and conservative music. In the late 20th century, with the advent of the charts, the music industry also categorized popular genres: for whites. Country, R’NB for blacks. “This early separation was just based on skin color, not music”, emphasizes Holly G. And the label continues. “The song sounds right and people tell me: ‘It’s not country,'” quipped Prana Supreme, a member of ONE The Duo, a country music group. “And I’m like, ‘Hmm, just what’s the difference?'” – “Iconoclast” – Beyoncé herself has not escaped country orthodoxy. .In subsequent years, a reference to an artist’s skin color or ethnic origin “could . Not necessarily anymore.” For Prana Supreme, Beyoncé’s country moment, which she describes as “iconoclastic,” will allow African-American artists and fans to reclaim the genre. “Southern culture is black culture,” she argues. . Trey Swindle, a member of the country group Chapel Heart, also believes that Beyoncé “opened up country music to a whole new audience.” “Honey, go to Poplarville, Mississippi, whether you’re black, white, Asian, Hispanic, it’s Poplarville. , and you’ll get that country feel,” he laughs. But Holly G, of the Black Opry collective, is cautious, believing that Beyonce may be an exception because of her extraordinary stature. “It’s because the industry is afraid of Beyonce, Not because he is willing to support black women.”mdo/aem/cha