Beyoncé And ‘COWBOY CARTER’ Locked Out Of Country Music Association Award Nominations

Beyoncé was excluded completely from the 2024 Country Music Association Awards nominations despite the success of her latest album COWBOY CARTER. Announced on Monday (Sept. 9), the CMA’s completely locked Queen Bey out of all categories including Entertainer of The Year and Album Of The Year. Both wins for the global icon and groundbreaking album would have made history.

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According to USA Today, the album of the year award is “judged on all aspects including, but not limited to, artist’s performance, musical background, engineering, packaging, design, art, layout and liner notes.”

Released in March 2024, COWBOY CARTER earned the mother of three her eighth Billboard No. 1 album . The work also distinguished Beyoncé as the first Black woman in history to debut at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart since the chart launched in January 1964. Additional accolades made by the acclaimed album include debuting at No. 1 on the Americana/Folk Albums and Top Album Sales charts.

Singles from COWBOY CARTER also made waves as well. With “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Bey stands as the first woman to top both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Charts. The dance-ready track debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The top nominee at the 2024 CMAs is Morgan Wallen with a total of seven. Shaboozey, the record-breaking country pop star featured on COWBOY CARTER also earned his first CMA nominations for single of the year for his chart-topping record “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” as well as New Artist Of The Year.

“Wrote a song about winning a CMA in 2016, and now I’m nominated for 2!” he exclaimed on X on Monday morning. “What an honor would be an understatement.”

The 29-year-old offered a kind message to Beyoncé in a subsequent post writing the following:

“That goes without saying. Thank you @Beyonce for opening a door for us, starting a conversation, and giving us one of the most innovative country albums of all time!”

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Alongside Beyoncé and Shaboozey, COWBOY CARTER also features Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, Post Malone, Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Rumi Carter, and Willie Jones.

While the 32-time Grammy winner has yet to make a public statement on the snub (and likely won’t), she did clarify her purpose in releasing the genre-blending work ahead of its release.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of the supporters of TEXAS HOLD ‘EM and 16 CARRIAGES. I feel honored to be the first Black woman with the number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart. That would not have happened without the outpouring of support from each and every one of you,” she explained. “My hope is that years from now, the mention of an artist’s race, as it relates to releasing genres of music, will be irrelevant.”

She continued to elaborate, “This album has been over five years in the making. It 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. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.”

The Houston native closed out by declaring, “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album. This is act ii COWBOY CARTER, and I am proud to share it with y’all!”

Listen to COWBOY CARTER below.

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