Dolly Parton Congratulates Beyoncé on Making Country Music History, Says She's a 'Big Fan'

Queens support queens! Country music legend Dolly Parton offered her congratulations and well wishes to Beyoncé as the latter made history with her latest foray into the genre. 

Earlier this week, Bey secured her place atop Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart with her new single, "Texas Hold 'Em," in the No. 1 spot. The singer's other new offering, "16 Carriages," also cracked the Top 10 at No. 9.

"I'm a big fan of Beyoncé and very excited that she's done a country album," Parton, 78, shared in a statement on Thursday. "So congratulations on your Billboard Hot Country number one single. Can't wait to hear the full album!" 

The 42-year-old star's latest achievement makes her the first Black female artist to top the Hot Country Songs chart.

The No. 1 song also gives the singer her seventh unique top spot on one of Billboard's multimetric song charts as a solo artist: the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Hot Gospel Songs, Hot Latin Songs, Hot R&B Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Only Justin Bieber has more, with eight.

Beyoncé caused a stir earlier this month when she dropped two new country songs, subsequent "visualizer" videos, and announced an upcoming album during the Super Bowl LVIIl. 

The Texas-born singer has been known to tap into her country roots on previously songs, most notably with Lemonade's "Daddy Lessons" in 2016. 

Still, a radio station in Oklahoma recently came under fire after they initially refused a fan's email request to play "Texas Hold 'Em."

"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,'" wrote user @jussatto on X (formerly Twitter).

After their phone lines and social media channels were swarmed with irate members of the Bey Hive, Roger Harris, the general manager at South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises, told ET, "At the time that the original email came in requesting KYKC to play Beyoncé, we didn't play her on our country station because she wasn't a country artist and sent a generic reply. It would have been the same situation if someone had asked the station to play The Rolling Stones."

"We didn't know that after the Super Bowl she was going to drop these country songs and we did not have access to these songs until the next day since we are a small market station," he added. "As soon as we saw the momentum and Beyoncé's fans inundating us with requests, we finally got the song and we played it. We are a minority owned station, we have supported Beyoncé for as long as she's been around. We are playing it now, have nothing against Beyoncé, and we love Beyoncé."

Amid the controversy, Bey's mother, Tina Knowles Lawson, spoke out about their family's long history of celebrating cowboy culture in the south. 

"We have always celebrated Cowboy Culture growing up in Texas," Tina wrote. "We also always understood that it was not just about it belonging to White culture only. In Texas there is a huge Black cowboy culture. Why do you think that my kids have integrated it into their fashion and art since the beginning."

"When people ask why is Beyoncé wearing cowboy hats? It's really funny, I actually laugh because it's been there since she was a kid, we went to rodeos every year and my whole family dressed in western fashion," the proud mama added. "Solange did a whole brilliant Album and Project based on Black Cowboy Culture. It definitely was a part of our culture growing up.❤️❤️."

Renaissance: Act II, the second part of a planned trilogy of albums that started with 2022's Renaissance, will be released on March 29. 

While her first Renaissance album served as a tribute to house and disco music, it seems clear that Act II will offer a tip of the cowboy hat to country music. 

RELATED CONTENT: