Penned by Paul McCartney as tribute to the civil rights movement, and featuring Black female country artists, it makes perfect sense for the superstar to feature it on Cowboy Carter

Written by Paul McCartney for the Beatles’ 1968 double album The Beatles (AKA “the White Album”) Blackbird isn’t the most obvious song to turn up 55 years later (retitled Blackbiird) on the new Beyoncé album. However, it makes perfect sense for the superstar to cover it on her so-called “country album”, Cowboy Carter . Where casual listeners could be forgiven for thinking Blackbird is a song about a small winged visitor to the garden – the Fab Four’s delicately lovely original does, after all, begin “blackbird singing in the dead of night …” and include birdsong – the song is actually steeped in the civil rights movement and female emancipation, themes that resonate deeply with Beyoncé.

McCartney penned it as a tribute to the Little Rock Nine, a group of students who had faced racial discrimination after starting at the all-white Little Rock high school in 1957. The incident attracted national attention because it was a test case of Brown v Board of Education, a supreme court ruling that said segregation in such schools was unconstitutional. Arkanas governor Orval Faubus didn’t agree and sent in the national guard to stop the students entering the premises. However, after federal troops were then brought in to escort them in, the fledgling civil rights movement had nine early heroes and the attention of the world – including McCartney.

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Straying far beyond its original country concept, the musician’s eighth album straddles the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the blues – and Becky with the Good Hair via Dolly Parton’s Jolene

American Requiem, the opening track of Beyoncé’s eighth studio album, is many things. It offers a touch of state-of-the-nation address – “Can we stand for something? Now is the time to face the wind” – and a sprinkling of the kind of vague but apparently personal lyrics that send social media into a frenzy of decoding: what are her “father’s sins” that Beyoncé has apparently “cleansed” herself of? Who are the “fairweather friends” for whom she claims to be planning “a funeral”?

It’s also a loud statement of what you might call Beyoncé’s bona fides. She is, she avers, “the grandbaby of a moonshine man [from] Gadsden, Alabama” who furthermore has roots in Louisiana. “They used to say I spoke too country,” she protests, adding: “What could be more country than that?”

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The singer announced her next record on Instagram with a photo of herself riding a horse and wearing red, white and blue

The countdown to Beyoncé’s next album, Act II, is officially on, marked by the superstar herself on Instagram. In a post that doubled as the album art drop, Beyoncé revealed an image of herself riding a white horse, holding an American flag, decked out in red, white and blue.

“This album has been over five years in the making,” wrote Beyoncé in the accompanying caption. “It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t.” In 2016, the singer faced backlash from the mainstream country community after releasing a country song.

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Singer last topped the UK singles chart in 2010 with Lady Gaga duet Telephone

Beyoncé has scored her first UK No 1 in 14 years with her new country single, Texas Hold ’Em.

The song, which features Beyoncé line dancing through life’s problems with a whiskey in hand, has jumped from No 9 in its second week of release, and is the first country song to reach UK No 1 since Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road in 2019. Beyoncé was last at No 1 in 2010 with her Lady Gaga duet Telephone, and her last solo No 1 was If I Were a Boy in 2008.

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Entertainment giant, owner of Ticketmaster, announces soaring revenue, with 145 million fans attending 50,000 events in 2023

Live Nation, the entertainment giant that owns Ticketmaster, reported its biggest year ever in 2023, in terms of both attendance and ticket sales.

In its end-of-year report , the company, currently the subject of an antitrust investigation by the US justice department, said concert attendance was up by 20% compared to 2022, with more than 145 million fans attending more than 50,000 events. Ticketmaster sold 620m tickets, up 13% compared to the year prior.

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Beyoncé is also the first woman to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hip Songs charts since the lists began in 1958

Beyoncé has become the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, after her track Texas Hold ‘Em debuted at No 1.

In a genre whose relationship to Black artists has often proved controversial , the track marked one of several historical achievements when weekly chart rankings refreshed on Tuesday.

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Two new country-themed songs, Texas Hold ’Em and 16 Carriages, were added to streaming ahead of the album’s 29 March release

Beyoncé has announced the second album in her Renaissance trilogy will be released on 29 March, in surprise news that came during the 58th Super Bowl, and was accompanied by two new singles.

The two new singles, Texas Hold Em and 16 Carriages , indicate that “Act II” will be a country-themed accompaniment to the dance and house music juggernaut that was 2022’s Renaissance.

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From the stands to the stage, the Las Vegas Super Bowl draws some of America’s biggest names, with R&B star Usher going shirtless, in-line skating and bringing out Alicia Keys, Ludacris, will.i.am and Lil Jon for a career-spanning setlist in his half-time show

• Super Bowl: Usher’s half-time show, the ads, Taylor Swift and everything but the football – as it happened

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Actor Toby Jones on class, character and the cost of fame (1m26s); John Crace on Rishi Sunak’s break from a feral Tory party with a spa day at the Covid inquiry (23m00s); and the weird world of celebrity training – how Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Madonna get in shape for their shows (30ms58)

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