Fans of Beyoncé believe she will make a surprise appearance at Stagecoach in Indio, California under the name DJ Backwoods Barbie. Theories about the superstar’s alleged appearance started circulating on TikTok as the country music festival prepares to kick off on Friday. Keeping with the theme of the album about claiming space for Black people in the country music space, Beyoncé making a surprise appearance would make perfect sense.
Is Beyoncé really going to be DJing there??? Who is DJ Backwoods Barbie 👀 🤔
Stagecoach is Coachella’s sister event and takes place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio just one week later. It features headliners Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, and Morgan Wallen, and upcoming country artists like Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Willie Jones, Post Malone, and Willie Nelson are scheduled to perform. The festival also announced that Diplo, who has performed in the past, would be hosting the Honky Tonk, a set played at one of the tents on the festival grounds. The set will feature a variety of DJs blending country and dance music.
On March 11, Diplo was announced to perform, and the lineup includes an artist named “Backwoods Barbie.” On the festival’s website, each artist has a photo and links to their social media accounts. However, Backwoods Barbie has a photo of a Barbie doll with a cowboy hat and no photos of the artist. The page features references to Dolly Parton, with one post saying, “Cowboy Carter on repeat.”
Backwoods Barbie only follows six accounts: Diplo, Stagecoach, Beyoncé, Morgan Wallen, Guy Fieri, and Dolly Parton. The name Backwoods Barbie is a reference to Parton’s 2008 album of the same name. The album was a return to mainstream country music for Parton after doing mainly folk, bluegrass, and pop-country records in the 90s and early 2000s.
NOT A COWBOY CARTER SEMI-TRUCK AT COACHELLA, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR BEYONCÉ😭😭😭 — danny🫧💚 (@beyoncegarden)
The unknown artist is scheduled to perform a two-hour set starting at 7:00 PM PST on Saturday, April 27, the day of Morgan Wallen’s headlining performance. Call Me Country: Beyoncé and Nashville’s Renaissance is an analytical look at Beyoncé’s impact on country music and Black musicians in the genre.
Some sleuthing from the Beyhive found that there is virtually no information available about Backwoods Barbie. Fans surmised that this could mean a surprise performance from Beyoncé.
Beyoncé also has the ‘Cowboy Carter’ banner flying over her website. — James H. Williams covers UCLA football (@JHWreporter)
During the second weekend of Coachella, a semi-truck with a promotion for Cowboy Carter emblazoned across it pulled up to the festival grounds. This led fans to believe she would be one of the many surprise guests making appearances at the festival. It’s almost certain that nobody will know for sure before Saturday, so Backwoods Barbie’s set will have a lot of eyes on it.
