Dolly Parton Shapes 2020s Pop With Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter Collaborations

2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 25

Parton’s reach into 2020s pop has resurfaced through two high-profile collaborations: a spoken-word intro on Beyoncé’s “Jolene” for Cowboy Carter and a duet remix of Sabrina Carpenter’s 2024 hit “Please Please Please.”
Those appearances underline how songs Parton wrote in the 1970s still drive mainstream culture, with “Jolene” covered nearly 90 times and “I Will Always Love You” becoming a record-setting hit through Whitney Houston.
Her crossover authority was built decades earlier when she pushed from Nashville into pop, taking “Here You Come Again” to No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 1977 and “9 to 5” to No. 1 three years later.
That success rested on more than image: Parton defended her songwriting and business control, left Porter Wagoner amid a $3 million lawsuit, and rejected Elvis Presley’s bid to record “I Will Always Love You” over royalty demands.
The result is a legacy that now frames Parton less as a country crossover act than as a template for today’s pop-country wave embraced by artists from Taylor Swift to Beyoncé.