On Billboard Declaring Beyoncé’s Tour the “Biggest” in Country History

Last week, one of the big headlines in country music was how Beyoncé’s recently concluded “Cowboy Carter Tour” was the “Biggest Country Tour in Billboard Boxscore History.” Grossing $407.6 million with 1.6 million tickets sold, Beyoncé eclipsed any and all other country music tours over the last 40+ years that the metric has been calculated.
First, even for Beyoncé detractors, or people who give no credence to the idea that anything on her Cowboy Carter album is country, you can’t help but tip your hat to Beyoncé for what is obviously an incredibly successful tour. $407 million made in just 32 shows is a major feat, and doesn’t happen without wild popularity, and rave reviews of the tour.
But of course, there is an important list of caveats to this record-breaking feat.
As Saving Country Music and others have pointed out, aside from a very strong debut for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album when it was released on March 29th, it ultimately performed poorly commercially, floundering in sales and streams after its initial release. As critics raved over the album and Beyoncé even secured Grammy Awards for Best Country Album and Album of the Year, sales and streaming numbers were lackluster for an artist of her size.
However, as we often see in music, Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter Tour” helped boost the sales of the Cowboy Carter album. Where 28 weeks after the release, the album had fallen completely out of the Billboard 200 despite all the positive press, Cowboy Carter sat at #109 on the Billboard 200 at the conclusion of her tour, though sales/streams fell 20% the next week, and will likely continue to fall in the tour’s aftermath.
The complete lack of promotion, and not coinciding the tour with the album release was always one of Cowboy Carter‘s biggest mistakes. If nothing else, the story of the “Cowboy Carter Tour” should be a lesson to all performers how important touring is behind a new album title, no matter if you’re a superstar like Beyoncé, or a smaller, up-and-coming act. Even in the age of Tik-Tok, touring is still a tried and true way to gain attention for your music.
But in the media’s obsequious reporting on Beyoncé’s incredible touring feat via Billboard’s Boxscore metric, much is being lost in the nuance of how she achieved it.
First, Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter Tour” was not the biggest tour in country music history when it comes to attendance, and it’s not even close—even if you take it as a “country” tour, which of course is debatable at best. The distinction for the biggest country tour ever was Morgan Wallen’s “One Night At At Time World Tour,” which sold 3.1 million tickets to Beyoncé’s 1.6 million, so nearly double the attendance.
For Beyoncé, it’s not the amount of tickets sold that has her setting the “country” Boxscore record. It’s the amount of money she made, or the tour’s gross receipts. As Billboard explains,
“The Cowboy Carter Tour consolidated the routing of Beyoncé’s previous tours to just seven American markets, plus London and Paris. In fewer cities, she played more shows, extending to four nights in Atlanta, five in Los Angeles and New York, and six in London. It’s rare for an artist to play so many shows at a single stadium on a single tour, and with more dates, she was able to sell more tickets and push higher grosses.”
Compare this with Morgan Wallen’s “One Night At At Time World Tour” where he performed 87 shows to Beyoncé’s 32, including 51 stadiums in 10 separate countries on three continents. However, Wallen only grossed an estimated $300 million. So the obvious discrepancy here is in ticket prices. If Morgan Wallen made $300 million off of 3.1 million tickets, that sets the average ticket price at $96.77. For Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour, the average ticket price would be $254.38.
Beyoncé, who is worth an estimate $800 million, was charging her fans over 2 1/2 times the amount Morgan Wallen was charging his fans, while only performing in nine cities compared to 51, meaning Beyoncé made her fans travel more and farther to see her. Does this make this Billboard Boxscore record illegitimate? Of course not. But it does add some necessary context to how Beyoncé got there.
Another important stat is how this wasn’t Beyoncé’s highest-grossing tour. That distinction goes to her 2023 “Renaissance World Tour,” which grossed $579.8 million over 56 dates. This means that Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter Tour” gross was down 30% from her previous tour, though obviously, with fewer dates.
But no matter how you regard the numbers, the question many country fans are asking is why Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter Tour” is being considered in Billboard’s Boxscore charts for country at all? At this point, Saving Country Music readers are tired of hearing this same old refrain, but it remains true nonetheless: Beyoncé herself said about Cowboy Carter, “This ain’t a country album.” Instead, the album was meant to “bend and blend genres” (Beyoncé’s own words).
But whether anyone could consider Beyoncé’s recent tour as being country is an even more difficult argument to make. After all, Beyoncé has an entire catalog of self-described pop, hip-hop, and R&B songs that she is also expected to perform on tour. You would assume that if she was on a “country” tour, the majority of the songs she would have to perform would be country.
Looking over the set list for the tour, the songs featured throughout the tour range at about 55%-59% material from Cowboy Carter, with the rest coming from Beyoncé’s back catalog. But of course, many, if not most of those songs from Cowboy Carter aren’t country. And that’s not just the opinion of Saving Country Music. That’s the opinion of Beyoncé. Not only did she famously state, “This ain’t a country album,” Beyoncé verified she didn’t believe all the songs on the album were country by how she approached the Grammy Awards.
Though many love to make a big deal about how Beyoncé submitted Cowboy Carter to the Best Country Album category with the Grammy Awards (and eventually won), she also submitted the song “Bodyguard” to Best Pop Solo Performance, the song “Levii’s Jeans” to Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, the song “Spaghetti” to Best Melodic Rap Performance, and the song “Ya Ya” to Best Americana Performance.
In other words, in Beyoncé’s own estimate, these songs weren’t country. They belonged in other genres. Again, her whole artistic intent with the album was to bend and blend genres. All four of these songs also were a significant part of the Cowboy Carter Tour set list. This means that even in the most gracious interpretations of the material performed on The Cowboy Carter Tour, the majority of the songs were simply not country.
But even if you take all of this statistical data and cast it aside, we all know that The Cowboy Carter Tour wasn’t a country affair. The artist, the fans, the songs, the venues, the locations, none of it was tied to the country music industry or culture. These were not country fans contributing to this musical economic activity. They were Beyoncé fans, and were much more aligned to pop, hip-hop, and R&B music.
Everybody knows this, including the chart managers at Billboard. But as we’ve seen throughout the Cowboy Carter saga, it’s almost as if everyone is forced to engage in cognitive dissonance to show fealty to Beyoncé and her fan base. This is how all of these institutions are quickly becoming irrelevant, whether it’s Billboard, the Grammy Awards, or popular music as an industry. With its country charts, Billboard continues to fail to actually represent the activity and interest of country music and its fans.
Fans of Beyoncé might feel like they’re winning some victory by Billboard declaring a 3-month, 9-city, 32-date tour that draconiously overcharged consumers as the “biggest” in country music history. But history has a way of setting the record straight over time, especially in country music.
At some point in the future, Beyoncé herself will say in an interview, a documentary, or an autobiography that while she appreciated all the accolades in the country realm for Cowboy Carter, her artistic intent was misunderstood. Neither the album, nor the tour were ever meant to be considered country. They were meant to confound the notions of genre, and “bend and blend” the genres that an artist like Beyoncé finds confining.
That is why despite deserving praise for the big financial haul Beyoncé pulled in via the Cowboy Carter Tour, this shouldn’t supersede the records that actual country artists set, and only works to undermine the credibility of all the metrics Billboard publishes.
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August 4, 2025 @ 10:31 am
Morgan never realesed data from the 2024 concerts.
We have Only 2023 tour dates data.
So rhe $300ml is only from 2023 dates.
So he could outsell her easily.
August 4, 2025 @ 7:04 pm
LOL yeah right lol he averages $5 million compared to her $12 million a night lol. He could never! Beyonce is Beyonce and has all you racist whites talking.
August 4, 2025 @ 9:59 pm
Oh poor gay beyoncè stan….
Morgan las vegas concert 2024 2 sold out
The only data we have.
100k attendance and $32 MILIONS GROSSED.
He is BIGGER than her. He already near her total album sales career with only 4 albums ahahaha what a flop girl.
If i know me 5ml units
Dangerous 12ml units
Otat 10 ml units
I’m the problem(2,3ml )units and more than 3 ml with pre singles.
130milions riaa certificated singles units sold
38 weeks at 1 bb200
16 weeks at last night
6 weeks at for i had some help
She could never beat him
She’s only the slave of jay z, a puppet.
August 5, 2025 @ 7:29 am
I’m not a Beyonce Stan, but yhose numbers aren’t even close to Beyonce’s career album sales, what are you talking about?
August 4, 2025 @ 10:55 am
Are there any songs on that Cowboy Carter album that are more Country than Texas Hold Em’?? How is Beyonce more Country than Taylor Swift who actually was a Country artist prior? Swift’s last tour made 2 Billion.
Astroturfing Beyonce as “Country” is just a targetted Left-wing attempt to claim ownership over what others created. I’m not trying to be needlessly political but what else is it other than a limp-wristed attempt to say “you know all that great 80’s and 90’s Country?….well blacks did that.” Time Magazine did the same sad trick with their recent 100 Best Podcasts and they left off Joe Rogan and Theo Von. Dumbasses who live in those echo chambers are eager to repeat those false claims because it doesn’t matter what is true, it’s that they percieve themselves as gaining more power.
August 4, 2025 @ 11:19 am
The Taylor Swift comparison is a good one, and one I thought about making int the article. For the tour after her “1989” album, she was still playing a majority of the material she had released on her “country” albums. So did Billboard mark it as a country tour, or a pop tour? Of course, they marked it as a pop tour because Swift had declared herself pop.
Either these charts and distinctions have meaning, or they don’t. And though I agree that SOME of the songs on “Cowboy Carter” do have some country influences, I think you need a rule where if an album or a tour is not 51% of a specific genre, you can’t call it that genre, with the default being “pop.”
August 4, 2025 @ 12:38 pm
Country music artists have veered into Pop for decades – including Dolly Parton and Crystal Gayle before I was born. That music still reached the same demographics that Country music has traditionally reached right? I get that music genres change but how much of blue-collar America is listening to Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen? I know that more traditionalist-minded Country fans will eschew Country artists from every era but Beyonce seems to be unloved by what has historically been the Country music fan base – which makes all this weird.
August 4, 2025 @ 8:16 pm
It’s not weird. It’s America and its ongoing practice to dissect Black achievement under a microscope to discredit individuals who dare to shake the status quo. Why can’t the idea take traction that millions of Beyoncé fans who never appreciated country music now *do* and have been introduced it’s history?
“Astroturfing Beyonce as “Country” is just a targetted Left-wing attempt to claim ownership over what others created. I’m not trying to be needlessly political but what else is it other than a limp-wristed attempt to say “you know all that great 80’s and 90’s Country?….well blacks did that.” This inflammatory statement says it all: politics, name-calling, refusal to acknowledge contributions of those who aren’t white/blue collar, etc. #thisisAmerica
August 4, 2025 @ 8:55 pm
Beyonce did turn anyone into a country fan. She has Beyonce fans calling pop, hip-hop, and R&B music “country,” and calling anyone who questions that a racist. Beyonce did have an opportunity to change the narrative in country, if she had made a country album, and if she had promoted it properly, neither of which she did.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:12 am
The politicizing of Country music is coming more from the Left side. Rebranding rap music as “Country” all of sudden is just a move to claim ownership over something they had almost zero stake in – aside from Charley Pride and a few others who they ignore.
Haley Williams of Paramore made posts online yesterday calling out bars in Nashville with the names of racists.
Myself and many others are quick to point out rightful contributions to music by black people. It’s that these leftwing keyboard warriors don’t give a shit about soul, jazz, blues, etc and only listen to crappy modern pop music and want to feel important when they see articles critical of Beyonce.
August 5, 2025 @ 7:13 am
I am aware of previous articles detailing early contributions to Country music my blacks in the first half of the 1900’s, however from the 1960’s on people who are championing Beyonce being the ‘new queen of Country’ or whatever are completely oblivious to Charley Pride, Ray Charles’ Country stuff, and anyone else who played real Country music.
Beyonce hasn’t contributed anything to Country music. She is just rebranding her kind of music and allowing others to call it Country. Morgan Wallen isn’t Country either but there isn’t a racial accusation made by detailing how his music is also shit.
August 4, 2025 @ 12:44 pm
I guess my point is that Morgan Wallen has the younger ‘rural’ fanbase, I would guess that most of the blue-collar demographics that have listened to Country music have now started becoming fans of Zach Bryan, Turnpike Troubadours, Zach Top, Cody Jinks – to name a few. What Country music is..is tied to the blue-collar demographic. That defines what Country music really is.
August 4, 2025 @ 1:11 pm
Taylor included multiple ‘official’ Country songs on The Eras Tour setlist. Maybe it should get to be considered a Country tour.
Fearless
You Belong With Me
Love Story
Enchanted
Long Live
All Too Well
Betty (serviced to Country radio)
No Body, No Crime (also serviced to country radio)
Not to mention all the surprise songs she pulled from her back catalog. The Eras Tour – the biggest Country tour of ALL TIME!!!
August 4, 2025 @ 1:34 pm
Those aren’t country music songs anymore than the Pope is Pentecostal.
August 4, 2025 @ 8:31 pm
History has proven, if you research that most music in America came from the black church and community!!! Research inventions as well in America, well let’s start with stealing this land!. So yes We started in country, blues, R and B. Shall I continue to educate the uneducated??
August 5, 2025 @ 6:13 pm
History hasnt proven that at all
August 11, 2025 @ 8:14 am
actually it has no matter how many refuse to accept it this article is massive cope Beyonce even outsold taylor at her peak in renny 20 million and her peak at cowboy Carter 17 in one night Taylor’s never done that and her last album flopped hard
August 4, 2025 @ 11:00 am
Buddy,
Please stop with your obsession about her. This is old and has gone beyond the pale.
August 4, 2025 @ 11:08 am
When you say “Buddy, stop with the obsession,” are you referring to the editors at Billboard?
August 5, 2025 @ 2:52 pm
Please stop with the dislike , hatred, jealousy, Don’t forget how many white people won awards in the RB category. Blacks didn’t act anyway shape or form like you whites who forget or don’t know where country music started. Yeah that’s ours too, it came from blacks and like everything else with a few years, according to
Caucasians you started it. Reminds me how whites went off the rails because a black person played. THE FICTIONAL CHARACTER AERIAL FROM THE LITTLE MERMAID.
August 5, 2025 @ 3:14 pm
The problem with these comments is they assume race is the reason for the discrepancy between believing Beyonce’s ‘Cowboy Carter” is country or not, instead of the fact that Beyonce herself unequivocally stated, “This ain’t a country album.” As opposed to assuming the worst in people, I would encourage folks to actually read Beyonce’s own words, attempt to understand her intent with “Cowboy Carter” to “bend and blend” genres, and understand there is a very compelling argument what this album and the tour weren’t country that has nothing to do with race at all.
Also, though Black performers most certainly contributed to the formation of country, Black performers did not “start” country music as if they own it 100%. This is a similar misnomer to saying “Cowboy Carter” is country.
August 4, 2025 @ 11:01 am
Long silky blonde hair (wigs?) isn’t “Cultural Appropriation” when “they” do it, but it is when a white boy blows Chicago Blues on his harmonica?
August 4, 2025 @ 1:35 pm
Cultural appropriation only goes one way in modern America.
It is not a matter of oversight but deliberate policy.
August 4, 2025 @ 2:18 pm
I always picture you typing this filth as a loner who lives in the woods or a senior senator. Both images disappoint me greatly. May God bless you Mr. Knight on your future nonsensical post.
August 4, 2025 @ 3:20 pm
Your insulting rebuttal only reinforces the validity of my position.
Truthtellers are never respected until their prophesies come to pass.
August 4, 2025 @ 4:16 pm
My brother in Christ we are merely two dudes in a country music comment section . Your tone is always so harsh that I can’t figure out if it’s sarcasm or not. Nonetheless you must kill at parties.
August 5, 2025 @ 11:29 am
Better a harsh truth than a kind lie.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:15 pm
But hes right. To claim he isnt, would be ignorance.
August 6, 2025 @ 2:51 am
CK is right and I don’t picture you at all.
August 4, 2025 @ 2:40 pm
Reconstruction never ended.
August 5, 2025 @ 12:33 pm
Exactly. It’s the same with gentrification. Groups moving into neighborhoods helps diversify the neighborhood! But what would happen if a bunch of people not black moved into Harlem and changed the demographics and the culture of it? Those same people would be pissed.
Look at how Post Malone or Justin Bieber were treated by black audiences. They claimed it was blackface and exploiting black culture. I think it grinds a lot of black peoples gears that Eminem could be considered the GOAT of the genre.
But Beyonce does a jeans commercial, or plays “country” or electronic and suddenly it’s revolutionary. Her race and gender are the sole reason for it all. There were 100 country albums more exciting, interesting and successful than Cowboy Carter. The album itself wasn’t even successful in the genre itself. It didn’t top country charts for long.
I question why people not in the genre or lifestyle and actively despise and hate our genre get to dictate to us all what country looks or sounds like or what values we espouse and promote. Those things need to solely be happening inside the genre itself and outsiders need to be excluded from these conversations. You can’t join our genre 5 minutes ago and then dictate the course and tenor and ideology of it. I’m sorry.
The point is remaking the genre into what they want, awarding every marginalized artist for solely being marginalized, promoting leftist ideology and suggesting it represents the genre in totality. The goal isn’t quality art, it’s indoctrination into an ideology of hate and resentment.
August 6, 2025 @ 5:00 pm
Many white & foreign people have already moved into Harlem and changed the demographics and culture including complaining about African drumming in Malcolm X Park — Mount Morris to them. The anger & upset has already come in waves. Of course if you knew anything about NYC and its history you’d be aware that Harlem was initially constructed as a suburb for German emigres & they moved out once black people were forced north by whites from the West Village (the original ‘hood) & Midtown to find residential opportunities in Harlem
August 5, 2025 @ 2:59 pm
The difference is when the white boy plays that harmonica we appreciate it as talent. There isn’t one thing black people started that white people don’t copy. As a matter of pure fact when that white person plays , sings , dances, dresses like us we embrace it. Imitation is a wonderful form of flattery. STOP THE HATE
August 4, 2025 @ 12:34 pm
The price of big concerts has become outrageous. I’m old enough to remember the days where you could see a ” Big name” for $25 to $50.
It actually wasnt that long ago when $100 would get you in the pit to some big names. Now, $100 often won’t get you anything, including nosebleed seats. For reference, Eric Clapton is playing Ohio this year and the last row was starting at i think close to 200 a seat. Midway down they were 300 to 400. Floor seats were over 1k. Paul McCartney is also coming, and floor seats are anywhere from 5k to 13k, even on Ticketmaster. Yes, im sure they are probably resale tickets, but my wife found out that logging on a half hour early was no help the day tickets went on sale. By 10 am when it opened , she was number 14000 in the queue. And prices were so outrageous, she tossed in the towel and gave it up.
Bizarre, but concerts used to be blue collar entertainment, and now only the wealthy can afford many of them. I literally don’t understand the perspective of someone paying even 1k for a pair of tickets for an event that lasts 2 hrs at best. And 1k would be considered cheap. Let’s say you are that guy that has to see McCartney and you fork over 10 grand to take yourself and a mistress ( yes that’s a Coldplay reference, laugh) to see the spectacle, how on earth is it worth that? McCartneys voice isn’t anywhere what it used to be, the dudes in his 80s! Seriously?!
People can burn their money how they see fit, but it’s quite obvious that big name concerts have become quite the status symbol for the pretentious and ego- centric wealthy. Why?
August 4, 2025 @ 1:41 pm
I’ve seen Clapton 3 times since 2006 with the most recent time being 2021 and tickets barely broke $100 for nosebleed. If it really is $200 now for the lowest that is a helluva jump.
I would be more sympathetic to higher ticket prices if more of it went to the actual artist with physical album sales being a fraction of what they were before digital. However it’s complete nonsense when a third of the entire cost is fees tacked on by Ticketmaster.
August 4, 2025 @ 3:24 pm
That is the price on the Columbus show Strait. Kid you not. We were on Ticketmaster with the official app. Not on a resell site. Went on as soon as they went on sale. It is a relatively smaller venue, and that may be in part why it’s pricey.
Keep in mind prices have jumped a bunch since pandemic ended. I’m seeing it all the time. Guess im out on Clapton.
August 4, 2025 @ 8:44 pm
$200 is insane. I would only spend that to see Tom Waits
August 4, 2025 @ 2:43 pm
The fees are ridiculous, but Live Nation is on the record saying they want to turn concerts into a luxury experience. They have a monopoly and they can artificially inflate the price as much as they want. Not to mention premium parking, fast lanes and other BS VIP experiences not related to the artist or shared musical experience.
You ever wonder how they can justify a “facility fee” as a percentage of the ticket price? Like seriously, what service costs more money to provide to someone in the front row compared to someone in the back row?
It’s the same concept as when they first introduced the convenience fee when ticketing switched from IRL to online. They don’t provide a better “service” but continue to add new fees all the time.
August 4, 2025 @ 3:50 pm
Well, I’m old enough to remember when you could see the big names for $8-12.
Which brings me to my point. This is all just marketing. It’s not a factual statement of any sort to say this or that about anybody’s tour. Having been in a related industry, I can tell you for a fact that a lot of the very best tickets to concerts are given away as rewards/bribes/whatever to industry insiders and adjacents. They were rewards for marketing and selling efforts. I used to go to big shows that filled arenas, and every person around me was a fellow insider/adjacent that I knew. How are these “tickets” accounted for? Who knows – I don’t. It takes a whole lot of marketing to get people to pony up the big bucks for modern concert prices. All these “news” reports are just intended to feed the FOMO dragon. If not for this time, for the next.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:20 pm
I cant speak for anyone but me but if i could i would pay the asking price at least for a mid teir ticket for mccartney regardless of his age. To me it would be the closest i could get to seeing the beatles play. Some things arent about the money but youbdo have to have it.
August 5, 2025 @ 7:42 pm
This. I understand things are expensive, but that price for seeing a beatle is worth it. Se artists ask too much for their concerts, I don’t see any situation where you could list a price like that, with the caveat it being a Beatle and that price tag would be too expensive. He demands a lot but when you are the legit GOAT of your profession you can and should get away with it. I’m sure Michael Jordan demands a lot for attending his camps. But if you can attend a basketball camp taught by Michael Jordan. You are going to do it.
If you are Paul you are a legit GOAT. He deserves every penny he asks. Without question.
August 4, 2025 @ 1:48 pm
Whatever this post was meant to imply failed. Especially comparing Beyoncé, as a country artist, to Morgan Wallen, who’s past two albums have had the same amount or even more pop/hip-hop/rap sounding songs on it as “COWBOY CARTER.” Either way, Beyoncé’s venture into country music is even more impressive as it opened the genre up to more discussion, headlines, creativity, etc.
Furthermore, Beyoncé intentions behind this album and its music wasn’t to necessarily say, “Hey, look at me, I’m a country artist!,” if people did their research, they would know that she is doing a trilogy project consisting of three “acts”:
act i RENAISSANCE – was her venture into dance music which has origins in Black queer culture
act ii COWBOY CARTER – was her venture into country music which has origins in Black culture
act iii (upcoming release) – will be her venture into rock music which clearly has origins in Black culture
I think what she’s doing is awesome for her, her demographic, her artistry, and just anyone who truly LOVES all types of music and its history. She’s making a statement though music and as an artist, that’s the way many of the legends from back in the day used their voice—through music. So, people can hate all they want, but what Beyoncé is doing is truly legendary and will go down in music history. She went from being a pretty, cookie cutter, pop/R&B singer, to someone who puts art and conceptualism at the forefront and is trailblazing a path forward for people like her and opening up many doors in the process.
Kudos to Bey!
August 4, 2025 @ 2:08 pm
Agreed that it’s a stretch to call Morgan Wallen a “country” artist as well, but he is well-established within the country music industry whether we like it or not, and is not just using country music as a stopover, like you illustrate Beyonce is.
I also agree that it is good that Beyonce stimulated an important conversation about the Black roots of country music that are often overlooked. But the hyperbolic proclamations, including this one about the “biggest” country tour ever unfortunately tend to stoke racism in country music as opposed to challenge it, because it presents a slanted view on reality. Beyonce had a great tour, and kudos to her. But there is no way you can defend the idea that 51% of the music featured on the tour was “country.” Not even Beyonce herself would do that.
August 4, 2025 @ 10:07 pm
Dance music was invented by our italian king giorgio moroder!!!
Blacks people haven’t invented anything in music. Enough with this ridiculous rhetoric. Stop changing history!
Morgan pop and rnb songs are 10 % of his catalogues. Other are country/country pop.
Beyoncè used 150 writers(even from nashville)to stay relevant. She used morgam wallen success and country music to stay relevant(but she flopped). Her album FLOPPED after the first week. Her streaming numbers are ridiculous. No one wants to listen to her music outside of her core fan base (a few million people). Her tour wasn’t even global.
August 5, 2025 @ 3:07 pm
Blacks haven’t invented anything LoL , Your comment is so ridiculous dumb, stupid. Don’t let the hate prevent you from knowing or ignoring the TRUTH. YEAH blacks were in Italy called Moors. Look up Italian history. EDUCATE YOURSELF INSTEAD OF SOUNDING RIDICULOUSLY IGNORANT WITH DISLIKE
August 4, 2025 @ 2:43 pm
I don’t know whether “Cowboy Carter” is country and I really don’t care.
But I think the biggest evidence for Cowboy Carter being country is your claim/revelation that it has not sold well.
I don’t know why a highly publicized and promoted–and awarded–Beyonce album would not sell well, but if I have to take a wild guess, I’ll say that it’s because her fans think it’s country and her fans don’t like country music.
August 4, 2025 @ 7:03 pm
It’s sold very well! She’s made over $12 million a show. That says it all lol
August 4, 2025 @ 7:09 pm
I hope this writer can sleep well tonight lol! It’s killing them Beyonce tour aka Country Tour did so well. Billboard and the Grammys labeled it country and she’s now in the history books. Morgan could never be on Beyonce level. Never! Beyonce isn’t throwing chairs off of buildings, getting drunk and saying the N work. Her track record is clean baby! Deal with it and move on. Cowboy Carter sold well and the tour made history. What does your bank account looks like after this article? I’ll wait….. Cowboy Carter is just as country as any artist today. Listen to it I’m sure you will love it. Now own to the next one! She won best country album and duo with Miley lol. God is always on time lol. Loving it
August 6, 2025 @ 2:55 am
What country music do you listen to?
August 4, 2025 @ 9:51 pm
Dude, for your own sake, get off the dang internet. Everytime I see anything from this site, it’s you crashing out over Beyoncé achieving something. How does Beyoncé being successful in country music affect you??? Like seriously, I want to know. You can’t say she isn’t making “real” country music. For one, she is from Texas. And also, there are no written rules on what makes “real” country music and “fake” country music. Also, you are probably a certain ethnicity. Respectfully, I will not listen to the the people descended from colonizers and folks who owned people like property on a genre of music that was made by the people you considered property. What does Beyoncé need to do to make you happy. Sing trashy “bro” country??? Apologize to all you gatekeepers because you weirdos have it out for Beyoncé making music from a genre that black people created??? One thing a certain group of people in this country are good at is taking stuff that doesn’t belong to them and then gatekeep it. You need to get over whatever weird relationship you have with Beyoncé. It is very weird that you think it is normal to write think piece after think piece about Beyoncé having the nerve to exist as a black woman who makes country music. Tons of white people have made R&B and Hip-Hop songs, but when a blsck person makes country music, the apocalypse is upon us??? Grow up, my guy. If you don’t like Beyoncé, just get off of the internet. It’s Beyoncé’s internet for a reason. Besides, are you being forced to listen to her music, or literally see any form of content about her?? Are these weird cringy think pieces paying your bills?? If so, I understand. In this economy, I too would also write think pieces about people I hate if it meant I could pay my bills. Please, for your own good, just train your algorithm to not show you Beyoncé content. The more you yap about hoe much of a problem you have with her, the more your algorithm will just shove her in your face for the sake of engagement.
And finally, what the heck are you getting out of this?? An award?? Money?? This is why we should normalize diaries again. You clearly spend too much time writing about how Beyoncé is the epitome of all evil, when I assure you that you probably have things better to do than to write about how Beyoncé has the highest-selling COUNTRY MUSIC tour of all time. No amount of think pieces about how Beyoncé isn’t country is gonna change the fact that Beyoncé is indeed a country girl making country music. So instead of carrying all that silly hate in your heart for a billionaire who is married to a billionaire, talk to your friends and family. Go outside. Have fun. It’s for your own good.
August 4, 2025 @ 10:53 pm
Once again, claiming that Beyonce made a country album is the insult to her and her artistic intent with “Cowboy Carter” to “blend and bend genres.” Beyonce never claimed she made a country album. She ONLY proclaimed “This ain’t a country album.” As opposed to speaking down to people and making assumptions, take a beat to understand Beyonce’s goal with the record as opposed to “confining” her work to the country genre. Go listen to the track “The Linda Martell Show.”
August 5, 2025 @ 3:12 pm
THANK YOU
August 4, 2025 @ 11:15 pm
Thank Willie donnett
August 5, 2025 @ 12:10 am
I am amused they say it is the biggest grossing country tour. is that because it did not gross nearly as much as non country tours and was below expectations? I think such claims need to be treated with a healthy does of scepticism. Bigger than Taylor Swifts? Whatever, whether one likes her music or not (its not for me), she is a talent and has had a lot of success. She clearly made some money from this tour!
August 5, 2025 @ 12:13 pm
Beyoncé isn’t even the biggest musician in music let alone in country music. Morgan dwarfs her and everyone else except Taylor Swift. He’s enjoyed success within country music that is generational, and unlike anything we’ve seen since probably Garth brooks. Morgan has some of the most successful albums we’ve seen in country in our lifetimes. He’s a superstar not just a star.
All one has to do is look at how long his albums stays number one. And how much of a juggernaut he is in the genre and his ability to bring people into the genre that aren’t traditional country fans. Someone made that argument in the Tyler post that Tyler was this. He is. But Morgan is this times 100. Morgan made country cool to a generation that seemed it uncool previous. A
To even include Beyoncé in that list is a slap in the face to us all because she doesn’t play country music. It would be like if Ed Sheehan released 2 songs on an album and named it English country, and then toured it. He’d make a killing, and it would be widely successful as all his music is, but that doesn’t mean it’s a country album or tour.
Morgan is country music. He’s the figurehead and face of the genre. He has been for at least half a decade. I’m the Problem is a success, whether or not it lives up to the standards he’s set so far is us for debate, but what is not, is his power in the genre.
Beyoncé winning the Grammys and the other awards for this specific album is not something fans in our genre accept or agree with. Had she won for r&b or pop we’d have no issue. Morgan on the other hand was shut out of awards for years and everyone knew he was entertainer of the year and Country artist of the year from 2021-currently. Even the years he didn’t release or tour.
Is he bigger than Garth brooks? Debatable. But he’s one of the biggest country artists of all time already. Without question.
The reason why Beyoncé is lauded, always, and her art and albums are treated as biblical treatises on love, heartbreak and society. While Morgan outsells her and everyone else (minus Taylor) is that he is a white straight male who codes as conservative even though he is largely non political. It’s the same reason why Beyoncé’s Levi’s Jeans ad is now seen as brave and stunning while Sydney Sweeney’s ad is considered racist. It’s the same culprits pushing it all. Morgan is problematic because he’s unapologetically southern and country and possibly conservative. He doesn’t sit around and ponder in music the troubled history of the south or race in the genre. His interest is purely in making music that attracts the widest possible audience. Beyoncé makes art about how we need to re examine our prejudices and acknowledge our privilege. Morgan is proudly politically incorrect in a very politically correct age.
Put simply Beyoncé is being given Grammys and awards and these laudatory articles right now is because she is a black woman. Point blank period. It’s why Netflix did that documentary about black and lgbtq artists, it’s why the conversations around the industry has been about diversity and welcoming all groups. It’s why people on the left think they can tell us who is country and who isn’t. NPR ans NY Times don’t do articles about Morgan or Jason Aldean or Oliver Anthony. The only time they talk about us is when liberal artists are featured, Tyler, Sierra, Charley Crockett. That gives the public a sense that we are all liberal. We aren’t. The vast majority aren’t.
The reasons for all this aren’t to diversify or get more spotlight on lesser known marginalized artists. It’s to push an agenda. If given the choice these people would have only artists like Charley or Mickey Guyton and Rissi Palmer in the genre, at the exclusion of white or conservative artists. The agenda is the whole point.
Morgan’s a huge deal, but he doesn’t get these awards or breathless articles. Yet he’s clearly the genre. Beyoncé is not. She’s a Trojan horse for Critical race theory and diversity equity and inclusion writ large in the genre. The whole point is a humiliation ritual where they try and remake country in past and present to be a patchwork of nothing but his country treated certain demographics.
The focus is on skin color, perceived historical wrongs, and ultimately racial resentment and rage enacted by people who weren’t directly effect, and taken out on people who didn’t engage in those perceived wrongs.
Beyonces non acceptance in the genre has nothing to do with her race. And everything to do with as Trigger said, they she doesn’t make country music at all. You can’t just claim to make country because you feel like it then make polka music and go “this is country music!” No it’s not.
August 5, 2025 @ 1:50 pm
Put simply, that the 8th paragraph of a 12 paragraph post starts with “Put simply…”, tells me all I need to know without reading anything else in the post.
I apologize for the double post.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:53 pm
Morgan Wallen is a non factor outside of the United States. Beyoncé has sold more records than him (and Taylor Swift for that matter) in every single country on earth.
August 5, 2025 @ 5:00 pm
Her next album will be titled “Kind of Blue-yance” and incorporate some trumpet and stand-up bass on pop and dance club songs. It will win the Grammy for best jazz album and set all the records for jazz tours. All this despite Beyonce saying, “This ain’t no jazz album!”
August 5, 2025 @ 6:36 pm
Well since its not bigger than taylors, all tbe hyperbole around cowboy carter tour is just made up. While some may not consider taylors original stuff country, it was played on country radio and is far closer than beyonces is. I dont really care about this though. Good for her, now she can afford to buy some new shiny clothes . What the money wont buy is actually being a country artist. That takes work and long miles that some black country artist actually have done, charley crockett for example. It takes just a little more than just putting boots and a cowboy hat on.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:50 pm
The obsession with tracking the commercial performance of Cowboy Carter and its accompanying tour is getting borderline scary by this publication. Aside from the fact that this article, and the one written in December claiming the album was a commercial underperformance, strongly contradicts itself when it isn’t repeating the same quote from Beyoncé stating the album is not country that has since been taken out of context.
Assuming Beyoncé played as many dates as Morgan Wallen’s tour, the revenue gross would be higher and so would the attendance figures given the fact that Beyoncé played solely in stadiums and had a higher nightly attendance at every mutual venue the two tours share. Therefore, the distinction of the Cowboy Carter Tour being the highest grossing country tour of all time would not change. The inclusion of 4 of her signature hits on the setlist, which makes up around 10 minutes of the 3 hour show does not change the fact that the Cowboy Carter album was performed in full, alongside many of her other back catalogue being remastered into a country context.
The album itself also was far from a “commercial underperformance” as you have stated. Ignoring the performance of the album during it’s debut week (where it remained the second highest first week sales by any female artist throughout all of 2024 and remains the second highest Spotify debut for an album by any female artist to date), the album was solely carried by it’s record breaking lead single Texas Hold ‘Em. You conveniently skimmed over the fact the album received zero promotion from Beyoncé outside of the Netflix Christmas Halftime Show which was an entire 8 months after the album was released before comparing it’s weekly performance to Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. The Tortured Poets Department had two months of pre-orders (compared to Cowboy Carter’s one), had 19 (yes, nineteen) different variants contributing to the album’s debut and subsequent chart performance (compared to Cowboy Carter’s one), was announced by Swift herself live at the GRAMMYs (compared to Cowboy Carter being announced via an Instagram post), a completely new deluxe edition being released two hours after the original album (Cowboy Carter has no deluxe to date), and a lead single with various live promotional performances and a music video, all of which Cowboy Carter lacked. Despite this, Cowboy Carter is currently still charting on the Billboard 200 despite Beyoncé no longer being on tour and receiving over 2 million Spotify streams daily despite having no active single in over a year. These feats are all the more impressive when considering the fact that Beyoncé is approaching her 30th year in the industry, debuting decades before the existence of Spotify or the streaming era, and before half of the younger acts used to compare her to in your article was even born.
Whether you or your audience consider Cowboy Carter and/or Beyoncé country will not take away these titles. The continued forced narrative of the album being an underperformance will not ever be a reality. The very obvious biased approach to writing articles about her and the album is only taking away any credibility you have.
August 5, 2025 @ 10:34 pm
Cowboy Carter,
I can understand if the only reason you frequent a website is when it covers one specific artist or topic that it could appear an obsession is ongoing. But most all of these Beyonce articles are to either rebut or to add context to other reporting by much, much larger outlets, in this case, Billboard. If Billboard was in any way objective, they would have attempted to contextualize Beyonce’s “Biggest Country Tour Ever” themselves. But they didn’t. And so it was left to Saving Country Music to offer this spirited rebuttal on this very dark corner of the internet. The obsession is found in the media and fans constantly wanting to give credit to Beyonce for landmark achievements and acting as if she’s above reproach.
There is a very salient and fact-based assertion that Beyonce never intended for “Cowboy Carter” to be considered country (and even called it “Beyince”), and calling it country insults her artistic intent. I continue to believe this is the case, and believe Beyonce will re-assert this at some point in the future. If her own fans will believe her remains the question, since they didn’t believe her the first time.
August 6, 2025 @ 9:18 am
Look at the clickbait impact on this site when posting anything about Tyler Childers or Beyoncé. Bonus points for Childers for referencing Beyoncé on his new album. That one must really trigger much of the crowd here.
August 6, 2025 @ 3:03 pm
Team Beyonce will always be remembered as one of the greatest hype machines in the history of popular music. The hype far, far outstrips her actual body of work, which is a phenomenon that’s always been commonplace, but seems especially pervasive these days. She has a sizable fan base, she shifts units and sell tickets, but outside that bubble, no one cares about her “country” album, or her “country” tour, either. Her machine is adept at reminding everyone how her records are all massive cultural touchstones, and how her tours are all massive paradigm-shifting achievements, but the fact is she’s a very successful pop singer, and that’s it.
Her “country” album was either a sincere effort that somewhat missed its mark, or it was a contrived attempt to cash in on a lucrative market, which didn’t really work. Either way, who cares? Maybe one day she’ll lock herself in her mansion with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, and bang out an album that’s shockingly country, or maybe she won’t. I’m personally hoping she decides to dip her toes into grindcore next, as that’d be an interesting record.
August 7, 2025 @ 12:17 am
Honestly I think a lot of the negativity for the album comes as a result of Beyonce being white coded in the press. Had she just done a black country album I don’t think we would have had an issue with it. Kane, Darius, Charley, among others are accepted and loved in the genre, without qualification. Shaboozy is controversial but he’s one of the most successful artists black or otherwise in the genres history just based off a single song.
However the press for cowboy Carter was white coded. She wore that silly white wig, and wore traditional cowboy/cowgirl clothes, and she has lightened her skin or at least her photoshop did in post.
As a result I think there is a legitimate feeling that she is not really trying to join us and join the rich history if the genre and add her unique stamp but she’s essentially trying to blackwash country’s history to where white creators didn’t exist in the genre. Her stance seems to be whites stole it all from blacks. All while wearing the white wig. That’s going to cause some people to be justifiable pissed off.
The truth is lots of races contributed to country’s creation but to wipe out the white contribution completely is not only dishonest it’s also dangerous and amounts to libel. She isn’t wanting to join us she’s wanting to literally rewrite our history and genre to fit her own race and racist views. She doesn’t want to share the genre with us, she wants to kick us out of the genre we ourselves built and loved and cared for.
It’s the same silly nonsense about black panther and a time when black kings ruled the world and empire’s and civilizations existed outside “white domination”. In short, it’s bullshit. Bullshit.
Your universe has no meaning to them. They will not try to understand. They will be tired, they will be cold, they will make a fire with your beautiful oak door..