Country Radio Station Backtracks on Beyoncé's 'Texas Hold Em' Snub After Being Flooded With Requests: 'We're Playing Catching Up!'
A country station in Oklahoma will now be playing Beyoncé's new hit, Texas Hold 'Em, after being flooded with requests and accusations of racism. A representative from KYKC tells RadarOnline.com that he's "never seen this many country song requests before" and that the station will happily play Beyoncé but had to go through protocol first.
KYKC was slammed by the Beyhive on Tuesday after a local fan claimed the station refused to fulfill their Beyoncé request.
“I requested Texas Hold ‘Em at my local country radio station (KYKC) and after requesting, I received an email from the radio station stating 'We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station,'" the person posted to X.
While the KYKC representative did not deny the email response, they told RadarOnline.com that the station will play it for the first time this afternoon as they had to copy the hit from their "Top 40" folder and move it to the country one so it could be heard on air.
"This is crazy how many requests we've gotten for the country station," the rep stated in a phone conversation regarding Beyoncé single. "This has moved so fast!"
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The person — who didn't want to reveal their name — scoffed at the racism rumors, laughing that the "country guys are catching up" to Beyoncé's recent genre jump, adding that DJs usually only play the top 30 chart hits on the country station.
The superstar released her hit after appearing in Verizon's Super Bowl ad on Sunday, and that wasn't the only new music she had up her sleeve. Not only did Beyoncé release an additional single, but she also announced a full country-themed Renaissance Act II album.
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“OK, they ready — drop the new music. I told y’all the ‘Renaissance’ is not over,” she said in the commercial. A short time later, two songs appeared on Jay-Z's streaming service, Tidal, before appearing on Apple Music and others.
On Monday at 9 AM, Beyoncé's Texas Hold 'Em had already stolen the number four spot on the iTunes chart, and 16 Carriages had been ranked number eight. That's less than 24 hours after the country album announcement.
As for Beyoncé, she relaxed and watched the Chiefs win Super Bowl LVIII from a luxury stadium box with her husband and kids.