With her landmark 2018 headlining performance, Beyoncé has already dominated Coachella and effectively reshaped the iconic festival in her image. Could Stagecoach be next? Fans think so!
A sister event to Coachella, this year’s Stagecoach Festival will be held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., April 26-28, the weekend after Coachella wraps. This year marks the 16th edition of the festival (the COVID-19 pandemic put it on pause in 2020), and headliners include country music superstars Miranda Lambert, Eric Church and Morgan Wallen.
Of course, Queen Bey recently dropped her Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter album (March 29), which pulled heavily from country and Americana, propelling it to simultaneous No. 1 debuts on Top Country Albums and Top Americana/Folk Albums. Introduced by the historic Billboard Hot 100-topping “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the album features appearances by myriad country music icons and ascendant stars, several of which are currently scheduled to perform at Stagecoach this weekend.
A quick browse through the “lineup” tab on the official Stagecoach website reveals forthcoming sets from Cowboy Carter collaborators such as Brittney Spencer, Post Malone (performing a special set of country covers), Tanner Adell, Willie Jones and Willie Nelson. Even Brandi Cyrus, sister of Miley Cyrus, who’s featured of Cowboy Carter’s latest radio single “II Most Wanted,” is slated to hit the stage. But there’s one performer in particular that has piqued fans’ curiosity: Backwoods Barbie.
Every performer listed on the Stagecoach website received a feature that links all of their social media accounts. For Backwoods Barbie, only one Instagram account is linked. On that Instagram account (@djbackwoodsbarbie) currently lies 15 pictures — plenty of which directly reference Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter.
The account’s very first post — a graphic of the Stagecoach lineup captioned “Giddy Up,” a possible reference to “Tyrant” — arrived the same day that Cowboy Carter hit DSPs. Later posts include a major emphasis on the disco balls and sliver sequins (after all, Cowboy Carter and 2022’s Renaissance are connected), images of Beyoncé in her most Western attire, pictures of Dolly Parton and Grace Jones (who were featured on Cowboy Carter and Renaissance, respectively), and one post cheekily captioned “Disco cowgirls report for duty.” The Backwoods Barbie Instagram account also follows just six people: Beyoncé, Parton, Wallen, Diplo, the Stagecoach Festival and, curiously, restauranteur and television personality Guy Fieri.
The Backwoods Barbie moniker is seemingly sourced from the title of Parton’s 42nd solo studio album of the same name, which reached No. 17 on the Billboard 200 back in 2008 and marked both her first release on her own label and her first mainstream country record in a decade. Coincidentally, Beyoncé celebrated her 42nd birthday last fall (Sept. 4) during her record-breaking Renaissance World Tour.
The most recent Backwoods Barbie post features a map of the Stagecoach Festival Grounds with the caption, “Catch me on Saturday night at 7pm out in Diplo’s Honky Tonk!” Should Queen Bey make an appearance at Diplo’s set, it would make sense given that the two Grammy-winning artists have collaborated several times before, including 2012’s “End of Time” and 2016’s “Hold Up” and “All Night.”
With a Cowboy Carter promotional banner flying over the Coachella grounds during Weekend One and a massive promotional hauler on the ground during Weekend Two, the coincidences are certainly starting to pile up.
All of the Beyhive’s questions will be answered on Saturday (April 27), but for now, check out some more reactions to the Backwoods Barbie theory.
