Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter Ignored by Country Music Awards

When the nominations for the 2024 Country Music Awards were announced, everyone expected to see one name: Beyoncé. The pop megastar released her Country album Cowboy driver on March 29th of this year. The album is a meditation on the meaning of Country music and an extensive study of the genre that takes Beyoncé back to her Texas roots.

Still, despite Cowboy driver Being one of the best albums of the year, it received 0 nominations in total.

Fans were outraged, saying Beyoncé had been “snubbed.” But this was no mistake. It was a clear message to Beyoncé, namely: you are not welcome hereIt’s the same message she received before that famous performance with The Chicks (more on that later), and the same message that prompted her to write the album.

But the album isn’t a humble plea for acceptance. It’s a proud assertion that the country music industry’s gatekeepers can’t keep her out of the genre. So of course the Academy of Country Music didn’t like it. It was a diss track about them. Nominating her would be like Drake cheering on Kenrick Lamar at the 2025 Super Bowl. So the CMA shutout isn’t surprising, but the deeper questions it raises are intriguing.

Why Wasn’t Beyoncé Nominated for the CMA Awards?

Simply put, the 2024 CMA Awards would never nominate an album that criticizes them so openly. And it’s not just the Academy that Cowboy driverDespite the album’s commercial and critical success everywhere else, country music radio virtually refused to play it.

They were the only those. Cowboy driver spent four weeks atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart — a historic feat that made her the first Black woman to do so. The album’s lead single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which she debuted in a surprise performance after the 2024 Super Bowl, was also a record-setter. It made her the first Black woman to ever reach the top spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart — where she stayed for 10 full weeks. The single and album also dominated Billboard’s all-genre chart, with seven other songs on the 28-track album charting on the Country chart.

Yet many Country radio stations refused to play it. To me, that’s a sign that Beyoncé is on the right side of history (as if we needed proof) — Country music radio stations refused to play The Chicks, too, but look at them now.

So when it came to voting for the CMAs, the jury was still out. Here’s how the process works: CMA nominations and subsequent wins are judged by members of the Country Music Association. This committee is made up of artists, executives, songwriters, musicians, publicists, tour personnel, and assorted Country Music Mafia members. To be eligible, the work must have been first released or achieved national acclaim during the eligibility period (July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024).

Beyoncé qualified for nominations in categories such as: Single of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year and Music Event of the Year. It was clear that she deserved to win all of these categories, but would she? Would she even be nominated, we asked? The biggest debate was whether or not she would be nominated for Entertainer of the Year. This is the CMA’s top award, and is typically given to country artists who have had a strong presence in the genre for years. But with this blazing album and the country-tinged songs like “Daddy Lessons,” which earned her that fateful spot with The Chicks in 2016, Beyoncé was at least in the running for a nod.

Would the Country Music Association side with the critics and the culture? Or with… racism.

It’s no surprise that they chose to continue the tradition of banning black women from the halls of country music. In the words of social media mogul and cultural critic Blakely Thornton“Of course.”

“No amount of numerical achievement would make these people want us in a room,” Thornton said in a recent video reacting to the news. “And honestly, f**k them up, because I don’t want to be there.”

Beyoncé has been there and done it — singing at the CMAs was what traumatized her enough to write this album in the first place. But Cowboy driver isn’t just a long-winded diss about the CMAs and the genre’s current gatekeepers. It’s about something the Country Music Academy probably wants to pretend doesn’t exist: institutionalized racism and the life experience of a black woman.

What is Cowboy Carter about?

Cowboy driver is Beyoncé’s smallest project yet. The first track is a masterclass in storytelling, a compelling summary for the album to come. “American Requiem” begins with Beyoncé’s lyric, “It’s a lot of talkin’ goin’ on / While I sing my song.” This direct delivery makes it clear who and what the album is criticizing. Here’s some context.

In 2016, Beyoncé shocked the audience at the CMAs by singing “Daddy Lessons” from her critically acclaimed surprise album Lemonade. She graced the stage at the CMA Awards alongside The Chicks and was met with utter disdain. While most of us would do just about anything to get a Beyoncé ticket — people were liquidating their 401k’s to go to Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour — the audience was downright rude and criticized her performance.

But the backlash didn’t stop there. Country music fans were in an uproar for weeks after the event, and to this day, the performance remains removed from the CMA website. Some even threatened to boycott Beyoncé, which she ridiculed by making “Boycott Beyoncé” shirts for her fans.

But it is clear that our Virgo queen a lot of more to say. And she says it through this album.

When she announced Cowboy driver In March, she said, “This album has been over five years in the making. It grew out of an experience I had years ago where I didn’t feel welcome… and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But because of that experience, I’ve dug deeper into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive.”

The album reflects on what the genre is and means, and delves deeply into the rich roots of country music. It became a hit with both country and non-country fans, with the exception of the CMA.

That’s because the definition of country music is intertwined with the politics of race and black womanhood. We live in an age where half the states that stream Morgan Wallen are trying to ban black history, and some of the country musicians honored in Beyoncé’s stead have been documented with racial slurs. Of course, Beyoncé’s deep dive into race theory didn’t appeal to them.

The New York Times called Cowboy driver a “Rosetta Stone for the hidden racial politics in the stunning exclusion of Country that the CMA’s performance exposed.”

But despite the deeper concerns, Cowboy driver does what all Beyoncé albums since then have done Lemonade have mastered: blending the personal and the historical into something infectious pleasure to listen to. Cowboy driver makes me want to learn how to line dance. It makes me want to be Bella Hadid, wear a cowboy hat, and move to Texas. It’s also chock full of songs by Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Shaboozey, and more, and interpolations of classics like The Beatles’ “Blackbird” and Parton’s “Jolene.”

It’s a smart album, it’s a heartfelt album, it’s a dance-ready album, and it might be the best country album of all time. The CMAs would never get it. And at this point, I don’t think the Grammys will acknowledge it. But the culture will. And that’s what matters.

Who is nominated for the CMAs?

If Beyoncé didn’t get a CMA nomination, who did?

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of white guys. The most nominated artist was Morgan Wallen, for the white boy anthem of the summer, “I Had Some Help,” featuring Post Malone. Wallen received 7 total nominations, followed closely by Chris Stapleton and Cody Johnson, who each earned 5, while Malone and last year’s Entertainer of the Year, Lainey Wilson, each received 4.

The question of who will win Entertainer of the Year still looms large. Four of the five nominees were up for the title last year: returning champion Wilson, plus Combs (who won in 2021 and 2022), Stapleton (who has been nominated seven times but never won) and Wallen. The outsider is Jelly Roll, the newcomer to the group who has had an explosive year.

Although Post Malone’s song with Wallen, “I Had Some Help,” is the most nominated song, his debut country album, “F-1 Trillion,” was released too late to be eligible for this year’s awards. But despite being a rap artist first, Malone has been embraced far more by the country community than by mainstream radio. I wonder why…

There is one bright spot: Shaboozey’s undeniable talent. Beyoncé collaborator Shaboozey — who enjoyed a huge boost in streaming numbers after appearing on two Cowboy Carter tracks — scored his first-ever CMA nominations. He’s had a banner year. Nominated for best new artist and single of the year for “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which spent nine weeks atop the Hot 100 and 13 weeks atop the country chart. And he’s Dolly Parton’s godson — some people have it all.

Since Beyoncé wasn’t nominated, I can only hope Shaboozey brings her along to sing at his CMAs performance. But either way, in the words of Issa Rae, I’m rooting for everyone who’s black.