“My idea of what the mission is and somebody else’s idea of what the mission is are not going to be the same thing”: Texas Hold 'Em banjo player on her complex feelings about playing on the Beyoncé smash

American folk and country singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens performs on banjo with her band at Central Park.

Rhiannon Giddens, the musician who contributed banjo on Beyonce’s huge 2024 hit Texas Hold ‘Em has been talking about her complicated feelings about that track.

On the one hand, she told Rolling Stone in a new interview, she felt the experience allowed her to be embraced by the Black community for the first time (Giddens is mixed race), but on the other she felt her playing was part of a ‘transaction’ of sorts.