Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus duet on 'Cowboy Carter' track: What to know about 'II Most Wanted'
Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus teamed up for a song about a classic Americana topic: cars and road trips. The two singers blend their distinctive voices on a new song on Beyoncé's highly anticipated album "Cowboy Carter."
The track "II Most Wanted" meanders down the 405, with hands and smoke drifting in the wind. Beyoncé and Cyrus are outlaws riding shotgun and in the backseat into a future together:
Making waves in the wind with my empty hand
My other hand on you
Been a while since I haven't tried to pull away
But it's time for something new
Of course, Cyrus has had her own success as a crossover artist in the country and pop genres. This year she made history as the youngest person to be named a Disney Legend. In February, Cyrus received her first Grammy wins, when she was awarded best pop solo performance and record of the year for her smash hit "Flowers."
Last year, Cyrus reflected on performing alongside Beyoncé and Rihanna in 2008 for the Stand Up to Cancer program, when she was just a teenager.
During her “Used to Be Young” TikTok series, Cyrus said, "What I remember most from doing this performance is I was standing in between two of the big legends and icons that I was looking up to at the time, and they treated me like a little sister the entire time.” She added, "They were being really sweet.”
Beyoncé first announced her eighth studio album during a surprise Super Bowl commercial on Feb. 11. Simultaneously, she released her first two singles, "16 Carriages" and "Texas Hold 'Em." The two songs quickly took the internet by storm as many fans saw the music as a reclamation of country music's Black roots. On YouTube, Beyoncé reached over 2 million views on each song in just two days. Within weeks, Beyoncé made history as the first Black woman to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart when "Texas Hold 'Em" hit No. 1.
The new album is "Act II" of a three-part series. The superstar released her first act, the "Renaissance" album, on July 29, 2022, through her company Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. "Act III" has yet to be announced.
Prior to its release, the singer opened up about "Cowboy Carter" on Instagram. Beyoncé wrote while she was "honored" to become the first Black woman to Black woman to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, she still hopes for the day "the mention of an artist's race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant."
She revealed the new album took five years to make, adding 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." The singer was likely referencing her 2016 performance of her song "Daddy Lessons" with The Chicks at the Country Music Association Awards, which received mixed reactions on social media.
"But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive," she wrote. "The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. act ii is a result of challenging myself and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work."
She signed off with, "This ain’t a Country album. This is a 'Beyoncé' album."
Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network's Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.
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