Beyoncé Creates Song and Dance Over Her New Hold’em Track
Despite its explosion in popularity during the past two decades, poker retains a certain degree of mystique. The game also evokes caution and wariness amongst vast swathes of the Western world’s adult population. Resultantly, its existence depends on decisive moments, way beyond a Royal Flush and Quad-Aces colliding on a web-streamed $2/5 cash game from the outskirts of a place few have heard of.
Mainstream publicity is vital for poker. The pastime could become as obsolete as the Rubik’s Cube without it. The solo game, which once had the world hooked, serves as a cautionary tale. Poker, more pertinently the Texas Hold’em variety, received one of those decisive moments during CBS’s Super Bowl broadcast that reached an average of 120 million people.
Beyoncé has joined Lady Gaga and Kenny Rogers in releasing a song with a poker theme and title. ©Getty
Unexpectedly, Beyoncé, one of the most famous musicians in the world, teased a poker-themed single and accompanying video during a commercial promoting telecommunications giant Verizon. Its name? The new track is called ‘Texas Hold’em’ and is from the star’s forthcoming album Renaissance Act II.
Texas Hold’em to the Masses, Woo Hoo!
As Ben Beaumont-Thomas wrote in the Guardian: “Texas Hold’em is made for do-si-doing on a dusty dancefloor, with banjo, line-dancing commands, and exclamations of “woo hoo!” that might as well be “yee-haw!” For poker, the musical genre does not matter. Within 36 hours, ‘Texas Hold’em’ topped iTunes real-time sales tallies in over 30 countries.
Heading the charts in the United States, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, and others, ‘Texas Hold’em’ quickly claimed the Worldwide iTunes top spot. Views of the ‘Texas Hold’em’ video on YouTube have already surpassed two million.
Poker itself could not have devised a better marketing strategy. The only reference to the card game in the song is the line, “This ain’t Texas, ain’t no hold’em, so lay your cards down, down down.” However, millions will surely ask or Google the song title’s meaning as a phrase.
Bwin Had the Best Poker Face
2024 is not the first year a pop star has turned to poker and given the pastime a helping hand. In 2008, Lady Gaga released her debut album, The Fame, and one of the tracks listed on it was ‘Poker Face’. It was a song that attained worldwide success, topping the charts in 20 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
With over 14 million copies sold, ‘Poker Face’ – a song with some definite similarities with Bony M’s ‘Ma Baker’ – is one of the world’s best-selling singles. The accompanying music video for the song portrays Gaga singing in various costumes and playing Texas Hold’em in a villa. To date, it has been viewed 1.27 billion times on YouTube.
If this was a coup for poker, it represented a jackpot for Bwin. The Austrian-based UK-facing online betting site won a bidding war to sponsor the ‘Poker Face’ video by the then-unknown 22-year-old artist. Consequently, the company’s logo can be seen briefly on cards and clearly on a table during the three-minute 33-second feature.
Counting When the Dealing’s Done
It is easy to forget the historical importance of poker songs in society. Films such as ‘Rounders’, ‘The Cincinnati Kid’ and ‘Mollys Game’ are regularly credited with raising poker’s profile and generating charm and appeal. Many would argue music has done more.
Aerosmith’s ‘Deuces Are Wild’ and Motorhead’s classic ‘Ace of Spades’ are among the more successful and memorable songs with a poker theme. But the benchmark is Kenny Rogers’s version of ‘The Gambler’. The second verse of this 1978 classic song reads:
“He said, Son, I’ve made a life out of readin’ people’s faces, and knowin’ what their cards were by the way they held their eyes. So if you don’t mind my sayin’, I can see you’re out of Aces. For a taste of your whiskey, I’ll give you some advice…”
And its unforgettable chorus is as relevant to poker players today as it was 46 years ago:
“You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away and know when to run. You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table, there’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealing’s done.”
Such was this timeless song’s success – it sold 1.2 million copies in the UK alone – it spawned a series of five TV movies loosely inspired by the track and set in the Old West and starring Kenny Rogers. The first was 1980’s ‘The Gambler’ and the last was 1994’s ‘The Gambler V: Playing for Keeps’.
