Real talk: I do not care about the Country Music Association Awards (the CMAs) nor do I care about the CMTs or any other country-music awards show. There are too many music award shows already without siloing country-music. But! The CMAs are arguably the most prestigious country-music awards in the country. And the CMA nominations just came out and they snubbed the f–k out of Beyonce. Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter was one of her best and most musically innovative albums of the past decade. Personally, I would put Cowboy Carter just below Lemonade and way ahead of Renaissance. Beyonce showcased her country roots, her Texas roots and claimed space for Black artists within the country-music arena. And white people hated that and they made sure to snub her for it.
The 2024 CMA Awards have showered Morgan Wallen and Post Malone with multiple nominations but heavily snubbed Beyoncé, though she had one of the year’s biggest country albums with Cowboy Carter and biggest country songs with “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
Wallen leads the way at the CMAs with seven nominations. He’s followed by Chris Stapleton and Cody Johnson, who each earned five nods, while Malone and Lainey Wilson picked up four apiece. Wilson, last year’s entertainer of the year winner, will defend her title against Wallen, Stapleton, Luke Combs and Jelly Roll at the Nov. 20 show, airing live on ABC from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter made history this year when it spent four weeks on top of Billboard’s Top country albums chart — making her the first Black woman to achieve the feat. She also became the first Black woman to hit the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot country songs chart with “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which held the top position for a whopping 10 weeks. Both her single and album also led Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 and 200 albums charts, while seven other Cowboy Carter tracks hit the Top 10 of the Billboard country chart. The 27-track project, featuring Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Miley Cyrus and Malone, drove cultural conversations about Black artists reclaiming the genres they started, including country music.
Yeah, “Texas Hold ‘Em” was great, and I feel like “II Most Wanted” should have been a major single, same with “Daughter” and “Levii’s Jeans.” It should not escape anyone’s notice that instead of recognizing an innovative, popular, brilliant country album by a Black woman from Texas, the CMAs instead lavished nominations on a violent drunk redneck who loves shouting the n-word. Choices were made and white supremacy was upheld.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Beyonce’s IG.
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- Beyonce performs live in Cardiff as part of her Renaissance World Tour Featuring: Beyonce Where: Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom When: 17 May 2023 Credit: INSTARimages.com
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- Beyonce performs live in Cardiff as part of her Renaissance World Tour Featuring: Beyonce Where: Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom When: 17 May 2023 Credit: INSTARimages.com
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- Beyonce performs live in Cardiff as part of her Renaissance World Tour Featuring: Beyonce Where: Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom When: 17 May 2023 Credit: INSTARimages.com
Not surprised. But if Bey doesn’t sweep the f-ing Grammy’s we are gonna have a problem.
Not surprised CMA going to be as racist as always.
Anticipating the “it’s not racism, it’s outsiders/pop/urban artists they don’t like” comments. Two words: Post Malone.
We’ll see about the Grammys, she’s got stiff competition, excitedly from other women. Ariana, Billie, Sabrina Carpenter, Kasey Musgraves, all released albums to critical acclaim. Taylor also released TTPD, which was meh (just my opinion!) and Dua Lipa released her follow-up to Future Nostalgia. Someone said that 2024 was the Year of the Pop Girl and I can’t disagree.
With respect to all the stiff competition and women just mentioned, Cowboy Carter is still above all the other albums released. But hey, that’s just my opinion. Do I think the Grammys might still play in our faces about that? Probably yeah.
Queen B doesn’t need the CMA’s. She likely knew this kind of snub would happen before she released her epic album. Beyonce’s work ethic and bank accounts speak volumes.
Of course they did.
It’s not shocking, considering they are vocally racist against her and just playing her music.
… and they could only be bothered to play her music after they were called out repeatedly by lots of people.
Dyed-in-the-wool racists doing what they do best, being misogynoir.
II Most Wanted was amazing. Hopefully she and Miley get nominated for a Grammy for that song for Country Duet. It’s beautiful and makes me cry every time.
I love that song too. I can listen to it over and over again.
Might be my favorite on the whole album and I’ve never been a huge Beyonce or Miley fan either.
Love song! Also Bodyguard is a top ten Beyonce song for me. Looooooooove it. Don’t even get me started on American Requiem. She put her foot in that album.
Well, color me shocked!
My /s is, I hope, painfully obvious.
Post Malone nominated but not Beyonce. Yeah not surprised by this at all.
I mean, NO ONE should be surprised by this. They suck, but they’re consistent in their racism.
Gross.
I change the station when Morgan Wallen is played. Beyonce deserved a nom.
It’s not surprising but it’s still disappointing. She absolutely deserved all the noms for this album.
Disgusted but not shocked.
Totally on brand for them.
Disappointing but not surprising. The album was so good. Of course they’re going to snub her. They’re consistent, that’s for sure.
Beyonce talked about her experience when she performed “Daddy Lessons” on CMA and how that led her to explore the legacy of black people on the country music. The country music audience there insulted, disrespected her and the video of the performance got taken down after lots of racist comments. Neither their audience nor their “stars” changed since then. Morgan Wallen got more famous and sold more after getting caught in a video, saying the n* word. She most definitely doesn’t give a sh*t about the snubbing. I think, she accomplished what she wanted through Cowboy Carter, one of the best albums I listened to.
Racism cost money and it cost lives. Fortunately in this situation no lives were endangered and it only costs the racists money. They won’t get to benefit from the ratings boost and the increase in commercial airtime value that accompany a Beyonce appearance. Let them languish in obscurity.
Its the Grammys I’m focused on. Jay Z warned them last year to get there categories right when they miscategorized Renaissance. I want to see what they do this year.
She got some eyes and ears on other black country artists in music, so I think that was a win.
But yeah, the words disappointed but not surprised work here.
Agree with pretty much everyone else here – disappointed but not surprised. That album was one of the few albums in recent years that I have listened to multiple times beginning to end, rather than just picking out a few songs and listening to them.
Country fans showing their unattractive asses as racists is a tale as old as time. Even though Black people were part of American country music from the earliest days, most white people are gonna white and their default setting is to upheld precious white supremacy
Bey gets snubbed but Post Malone gets nominated? I’m calling bull-sh!t!
CMA have always had narrow eyes when it comes to country music. Shania Twain was shunned for years.
Honestly not surprised by this. She called them out and they didn’t like it. I love the album so hope it’s properly given recognition at some point.
What? Racism, let’s call it for what it is…
The Grammys are coming up, right?
The album is freaking amazing and I’m so happy she did it. She reclaimed the culture for Black artists who the CMAs often overlook. Congrats to Shaboozey!
So frustrating — perhaps not surprising, but truly audacious in doubling down on racism. I was a huge country fan in the 90s, but it took a boring and dare I say fascist turn awhile ago.
I haven’t downloaded and listened to an album on repeat for a long time, but I have with Cowboy Carter. It is so good. This was an opportunity for a turning point, as someone said above, a chance to expand their audience, expand mainstream country to incorporate all the incredible artists whose work is so much better than what gets played on country radio and recognized by the CMA. Extremely disappointing, but their loss.