Let’s get our bearings. We’re in Act II of a Beyoncé trilogy, meaning we’re yet to hear the third part of a series of albums that began in 2022 with ‘Renaissance’ and continued this year with ‘Cowboy Carter’. The first was house, the second, country. The third, nobody knows.
One thing that unites these two Beyoncé albums is an unprecedented lack of promotion. The artist known for her spectacular audiovisual conceptual works (‘Beyoncé’, ‘Lemonade’) has stopped even delivering standard videos. In queer bars where music videos are played, they have had to resort to desperately projecting cheap montages of ‘Break My Soul’ and ‘Texas Hold’Em’ because there were never any official videos. Is the artist not spending money on a platform that is in decline like YouTube, or is she hiding an ace up her sleeve and one day there will be a film for these works too, or at least part of them?
At the moment, all we know is that Cowboy Carter is an abandoned album, with not even a tour in sight. Strangely, Texas Hold ‘Em has been Beyoncé’s biggest hit in a long time, and remains her most-played song several months after its release. But neither single has drawn people to the album, nor has she done any actual promotion of it to do so. No TV appearance, no discount, no trick bundle, no autograph, no extra release. Nothing.
Actually, the same thing happened with “Renaissance.” The difference is that her second single “CUFF IT” worked on its own on TikTok, went viral without Beyoncé lifting a finger and extended the life of the album. This year, the Miley Cyrus duet “II Most Wanted” was lukewarmly received because the song wasn’t the best on “Cowboy Carter.” So you might have expected something to happen with some of the hidden gems on the album, like “BODYGUARD” or “YA YA,” or even some of the collaborations, from Post Malone to Dolly Parton.
Nothing of the sort has happened. As a result, if Renaissance spent, say, 72 weeks in the UK top 100, the new album has lasted only 14 weeks. In the US it is holding steady at number 79 in its 19th week. But the 1.4 million sold worldwide according to Mediatraffic’s estimates mean that Cowboy Carter is going to be the lowest-selling album of Beyoncé’s entire career. A shame considering all the great ideas that are – sorry, that were – in it.
If no one expects Beyoncé to take up the promotion of this essential album-encyclopedia, the singer surprises – or not – by getting involved in the creation and promotion of a whisky. It is called SirDavis, she created it in collaboration with Moët Hennessy and according to Forbes, she was inspired by her great-grandfather, who was a producer of illegal liquor. The pop world trembles at the idea that she could do as well as Rihanna in the world of cosmetics.
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