Where my Franklin fans at? I’m not going to lie, when I was a kid, Franklin was my jam.
The Canadian show premiered in 1997 (I honestly didn’t know it was Canadian, I watched it here in the United States) and tells the story of a young turtle named Franklin who is learning and growing up, much like the young kids who are watching the show. He has a best friend named Bear and he likes to play hockey and soccer… it’s honestly a great show for kids as Franklin’s journey sets a good example and offers a number of positive life lessons.
Oh, and theme song was an absolute banger. And… as the internet has recently (and quite hilariously) pointed out, it sounds an awful lot like Beyoncé’s new “country” single, “Texas Hold ‘Em.” I mean, an AWFUL lot…
Check this out:
Pretty wild, eh? And here’s the real kicker… the song was c0-written by Beyoncé with the help of Canadian songwriter and producer Nathan Ferraro, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, a 32-year-old Canadian singer/songwriter, and Megan Bülow, a German-Canadian pop singer. Not to say that there was any intentional copyright theft here, but if a number of Canadian Beyonce fans immediately heard the similarity, you’d think someone in that room would’ve heard it too. Then again, who knows what kind of demo track they were working with when they composed the song. A lot of times, pop songwriters (all 10 of them on the track) get in a room with just a beat machine.
Nevertheless, music fans were quick to point out the similarities on social media:
We’ll see if ol’ Bruce Cockburn, the composer of the Franklin theme will be getting a check…
Of course, ever since Super Bowl Sunday, the song has been one of the most talked about songs in all of music, as Beyoncé just became the first black female artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Chart. However, that didn’t come without some controversy as the song wasn’t initially serviced to country radio. When fans start calling country radio stations, specifically one in Oklahoma, they had no idea Beyoncé even released a “country” song, nor did they have a copy of it. People started crying racism, the station was bullied into playing the song, the label pivoted and sent it to country radio… it was a whole ordeal.
And let’s be honest, the song is catchy (just like Franklin), but it’s pretty on par with a number of cheesy pop country songs we’ve heard over the years. Good beat, some western lyrics, I’m sure Diplo will have some kind of remix ready to go for the Stagecoach afterparty… but let’s not pretend this is Grammy material here (so it’s perfect for country radio).
It’s still my thought that Renaissance: Act II might not even be the “country album” that the media was so quick to label it as after the release of the first two songs. Granted, “Texas Hold ‘Em” certainly has some pop country twang and western imagery to it, but “16 Carriages” (the other song) didn’t really scream country music to me. Beyoncé herself hasn’t said anything about the album at all (other than wearing a cowboy hat a lot lately), and given the fact that the songs weren’t initially served to country radio, or even labeled that by Columbia records when it was released to iTunes and Apple Music, I’m hesitant to jump on the media bandwagon and declare this an official “country music album” until Beyoncé herself shares either, her artistic direction and inspiration for the record, or… some more music. If and when the time comes, I’m more than happy to listen with a critical ear and give Beyoncé her country music flowers.
Of course, Post Malone and Lana Del Rey are working on “country” projects too, so it’s definitely not lost on me that country music is the “hot new thing” right now. With Post, he’s admiration and appreciation for country music is more than clear and has been evidenced more than a dozen times. Lana Del Rey on the other hand? She straight up said that country was popular right now so that was her motivation for her upcoming project… forgive me if I’m not that excited about that one.
If nothing else, we’ll find out what Beyoncé has in store on March 29th when the album drops. In the meantime, go ahead and crank that Franklin theme… I mean, the new single. Or don’t… I don’t care.
