How Beyoncé, Luke Combs are helping bring country music back to the pop charts

Beyoncé’s genre-bending country album will not only be one of the US artist’s biggest hit records but is bringing a raft of other artists along for the ride, including many from Australia.

Beyoncé’s hoedown throwdown with Cowboy Carter will fast-track the country music takeover of the pop world this year.

Country was already enjoying a mainstream boom on the pop charts, fuelled by the crossover hit records by Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, Kacey Musgraves and recent CMC Rocks headliner Lainey Wilson.

But the genre-bending Cowboy Carter, the second “act” of her Renaissance trilogy, will not only be one of Beyonce’s biggest hit records but is bringing a raft of other artists along for the ride.

Cowboy Carter became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2024 when it dropped on March 29.

Beyonce Cowboy Carter album cover. Picture: Supplied

Collaborators including country king and queen Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton enjoyed stratospheric boosts to their catalogues on Spotify thanks to the Beyonce effect.

Streams for Parton’s signature hit Jolene jumped by more than 11,000 per cent in the wake of Beyoncé’s reimagined version which is introduced by the legendary superstar with the cute prelude Dolly P.

Dolly Parton performs during halftime in the game between the Washington Commanders and the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Picture: Getty

Nelson, who also guests on the record, enjoyed a 190 per cent boost to his streams as the Beyhive visited his page to check out the 90-year-old music veteran’s music.

Australian country fans had already become acquainted with rising star Brittney Spencer, one of four black female country artists Beyoncé showcases in the stunning choir of harmonies on her record’s version of Paul McCartney’s Blackbird.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2024 when it dropped on March 29. Picture: Blair Caldwell

Spencer was one of the breakout stars at the annual CMC Rocks festival in Queensland last year.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to be an international artist,” Spencer said when she was in Australia.

American singer-songwriter Willie Nelson is still going strong on the charts. Picture: Pamela Springsteen

“It’s really fun to watch country music expand – I didn’t know there were so many country music fans here and now I just want to come back and hang out and do more things.”

CMC Rocks, which has a prescient knack of booking American artists just as they are about to become global stars, has been instrumental in growing a younger country music audience in Australia over the last 17 years.

Beyoncé’s delve into country is seeing the genre climb high pop charts. Picture: Blair Caldwell

Frontier Touring’s COO Susan Heymann, one of the team behind the festival, said the boom in young country fans has had a direct influence on the mainstream crossover of international and local artists to the pop charts.

That audience – always up for a good time whether at a festival or arena – has also influenced American country artists to think global.

Luke Combs performs during the BetMGM Big Game Bash at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on February 10. Picture: Getty

“It took some convincing with the Americans that there was a market for them in Australia when CMC Rocks first started. The new generation of artists are realising they can have careers outside of the US,” Heymann said.

“Until recently, they would have chosen a $1 million offer to play a state fair two hours drive from their home rather than fly to Australia to play a festival for the same money.”

Just as American country stars have nurtured a loyal and expanding fanbase here, so a new generation of Australian artists are finding audiences not only in the US but throughout Europe.

Australian country music star, Fanny Lumsden. Picture: Supplied/Dan Stanley Freeman

ARIA award-winning country favourite Fanny Lumsden is currently on tour in the UK and Ireland after wowing crowds at the mega Glastonbury festival last year.

Another ARIA winner Casey Barnes is about to head to the US to perform at Stagecoach, the countrified festival which takes over Palm Springs after the Coachella weekends.

Stagecoach has become the festival where the worlds of pop and dance enjoy a weekend-long affair with country.

This year Post Malone, a genre-straddling pop star with a country music side hustle, will be performing a set of covers.

And chart-topping producer and DJ Diplo, who has also embraced his country era in recent years, will host his annual Honky Tonk shenanigans at the festival.

Joining Diplo on the Honky Tonk stage will be Australia’s own party starter, Peking Duk’s Reuben Styles, with his side project Y.O.G.A.

Peking Duk's Reuben Styles releases new single Rodeo with his "cow-tech" side project Y.O.G.A. with Aussie singer Aviva. Picture: Supplied.

Styles has been playing sold-out “cow-tech” shows in Australia for the past couple of years where he whips fans into a bopping frenzy with his unique country meets dance remixes of pop hits and classics.

He is also about to release his new single Rodeo, featuring US-based Sydney singer Aviva, which they will perform together for the first time at StageCoach.

Styles said he dived into country music after being influenced by the soundtrack of Red Dead Redemption video game during the Covid lockdowns.

“Now I’m starting to love the bigger, brighter, shiny ‘ute country’; everything about that reminds me of simpler times, songs about having a beer with your mates on a Friday night,” he said.

Another Aussie artist exploring their country era is Amy Sheppard of the band Sheppard, who is now based in Nashville. And of course Kylie Minogue was a little ahead of the trend with her 2018 country pop album Golden.

Casey Barnes is about to head to the US to perform at Stagecoach. Picture: Supplied

The new breed of Aussie country stars are finding their audiences both conventionally via live performances at festivals like CMC Rocks and going global on social media.

Heymann cites Tamworth teen Lane Pittman, who featured on The Voice in 2022 when he was 15, as one artist most likely to join Casey Barnes to follow in Keith Urban’s footsteps to break into the American market.

Denvah Baker-Moller was in the Australian Idol finale.

Rising female artist Sara Berki, who also performed at CMC Rocks this year, is another artist to keep an ear on as she enjoys viral success with her version of the classic Take Me Home, Country Roads at a recent AFL match between the Brisbane Lions and Carlton.

Recent Australian Idol finalist Denvah Moller Baker, widely acknowledged in industry circles as our next big country star in waiting, is likely to score a recording deal this year despite not winning the show with major and independent labels interested in signing her to their rosters.