Beyoncé has been overlooked at the Country Music Awards, as her country album, Cowboy Carter, did not receive any nominations at the industry’s premier awards event.
The nominees and winners for the CMA Awards are determined by the votes of 7,300 members of the Country Music Association, following an extensive voting process.
This year, singer Morgan Wallen leads the nominations with seven nods, including the coveted entertainer of the year award, where he is up against Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Chris Stapleton, and Lainey Wilson. Four of Wallen’s nominations stem from his collaboration with Post Malone, titled I Had Some Help.
Cowboy Carter made history as the first album by a Black woman to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Additionally, the single Texas Hold ‘Em achieved the distinction of being the first by a Black woman to top both the Billboard Country Songs chart and the all-genre Hot 100 chart.
Despite these milestones, Cowboy Carter received minimal promotion from country radio stations, which play a crucial role in shaping the genre’s trends compared to mainstream platforms. In one notable incident earlier this year, a country radio station drew attention for initially refusing to air a listener’s request for a Beyoncé song, only to include her music after significant backlash online.
Though Beyoncé herself does not categorize Cowboy Carter as a country album, emphasizing on social media that it is a “Beyoncé album,” experts and fans have interpreted it as a tribute to the historically overlooked contributions of Black Americans to country music and culture.
Beyoncé’s previous appearance at the CMAs in 2016 was met with a lukewarm response when she performed Daddy Lessons with the Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks. She has shared that Cowboy Carter was inspired by a time when she “did not feel welcomed,” prompting her to explore the rich history of country music.
Notably, one of her collaborators on Cowboy Carter, Shaboozey, has received nominations for best new artist and single of the year for his hit A Bar Song (Tipsy), which has dominated the country charts for the past 12 weeks and also reached the top of the Hot 100 chart for eight weeks. Shaboozey is recognized as the first Black male artist to achieve simultaneous success on both the country chart and the Billboard Hot 100.
The winners of the CMAs will be revealed during a live ceremony on US network ABC on November 20.