Beyoncé Was Snubbed by the CMAs

According to the Country Music Awards, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter isn’t a country album. At least, that’s what I think was being communicated earlier today when the singer received zero nominations from the biggest awards show in country music.

The snub is especially curious given the fact that Cowboy Carter was not only a huge country hit, but a historic album. The lead single, “Texas Hold ’Em,” debuted at the top of the Hot Country Songs chart, making Beyoncé the first Black woman to ever have a song at the top of the country chart. A month later, the album debuted at number one on not just the Billboard 200, but also on the Top Country Albums chart, making Beyoncé the first Black woman to ever have a number-one country album. You’d think that the CMAs might want to celebrate that.

Instead, the awards show celebrated Morgan Wallen, who leads the nominations with seven. It appears that the CMAs aren’t wholly against a pivot into the genre, as Post Malone (who memorably features on Cowboy Carter) scored four nominations for F-1 Trillion, his album composed almost entirely of country duets. I wonder what the difference is between those two …

So what gives? Beyoncé didn’t wear that cowboy hat for months because she was making a jazz-standards album. Well, the answer might go back to Cowboy Carter’s inception. In an Instagram post ahead of the album’s release, Beyoncé wrote that Cowboy Carter was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t.”

Beyhive scholars and casual observers alike all came to the same conclusion: She was talking about the 2016 CMAs. At the ceremony, Beyoncé performed “Daddy Lessons” with the Chicks to an audience that wasn’t exactly happy to see them. These two entities have been beefing for years. “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me,” Beyoncé wrote in March.

And now she’s propelling past the CMAs. Why you would shut out the woman who would certainly bring in more viewers to your award show is beyond me, but that’s their mistake. Congratulations in advance to the Grammys for getting the Beyoncé bump at their show.