Beyoncé Honors Black Country Artist Linda Martell On Cowboy Carter

On her new album Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé spotlights the Black roots of country music, as is apparent on the track, “The Linda Martell Show.”

Linda Martell is considered to be the first commercially successful Black female artist in country music. She released her first single, “Color Him Father,” in July 1969, and it came close to reaching the Top 20 of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Over 50 years later, Beyoncé would become the first Black woman to top that chart with “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

Off the success of her first two singles, Martell released her debut (and only) album, Color Me Country, in 1970, which reached the Top 40 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. She became the first Black woman ever to play the Grand Ole Opry, a famed Nashville institution, and would go on to perform there 12 times.

While she quietly made history, Martell was one of the first Black performers in a primarily white genre, which means she was met with much resistance at the time.

Why Linda Martell Left The Industry

In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone — her first in nearly five decades — Martell reflected on her experiences with racism in the music industry. She recalled how she was heckled during her first live show, and that was just the first incident of many.

“I remember that well,” she said. “You’d be singing and they’d shout out names and you know the names they would call you. You’re gonna run into hecklers, and I did. Name-calling. That was something else. You felt pretty awful.” She also ran into issues with her former record label, which eventually blackballed her in the country world after she attempted to record songs for a new label.

After being met with hatred and limited success, Martell decided to retire from the Nashville music industry. She still played small venues across the country and took on various music-related jobs, like opening her own record store and performing on a cruise ship. But in 1991, she relocated to South Carolina to be closer to her children and has lived there ever since, even taking up a public school job for several years.

Beyoncé Faced Similar Backlash

Beyoncé has never spoken publicly about Martell, but she previously opened up about getting Nashville industry backlash after performing at the Country Music Awards in 2016, making Martell’s inclusion an inspired choice.

“Because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive,” she wrote on Instagram. “It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.”