When the Country Music Association announced the nominations for its 58th CMA Awards on Monday, there were plenty of expected names.
Morgan Wallen, the pop-country superstar who has been a streaming phenomenon, led the pack with seven nods, including for the top honor, entertainer of the year. Cody Johnson and Chris Stapleton, two Stetson-wearing stalwarts, had five nominations apiece, and Lainey Wilson, a rising star in song and style, and Post Malone, the rap-rock-folkie who made a pivot to country this year, each got four.
But there was a conspicuous absence: Beyoncé, whose country-plus-everything-else album “Cowboy Carter” took the music world by storm this spring, with her song “Texas Hold ’Em” going to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The album — with a cover picturing Beyoncé as a red-white-and-blue rodeo queen, riding a horse sidesaddle and hoisting an American flag — was a cultural phenomenon, stirring debates and extensive news media coverage about the historical role of African Americans in country music and their continuing struggles to be accepted by the Nashville establishment.
A Beyoncé fan account quickly protested on X: “The CMA’s have once again deferred to those in the industry who prefer to deny Black artists the recognition they deserve.”
But the snub was not unexpected. Eight years ago, Beyoncé got a cool reception at the 2016 CMAs when she performed her song “Daddy Lessons” with the Chicks (then still known as the Dixie Chicks). That experience apparently played a role in Beyoncé’s decision to make a country album, with the star saying 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. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive.”
And “Cowboy Carter,” despite its wider success — the album had the second-biggest opening of the year, and topped the chart for two weeks — was given only limited promotion on country radio stations, where the industry often signals its preferences and choices. While “Texas Hold ’Em” went to No. 1 on Billboard’s main country chart — as well as its all-genre Hot 100 chart — its success was driven by streaming and downloads. On Billboard’s country airplay chart, a more telling barometer for any performer’s success in the more specific arena of the country establishment, “Texas Hold ’Em” stalled at No. 33, and her remake of Dolly Parton’s classic “Jolene” never made it higher than No. 56.
And while Beyoncé demonstrated on the album that she was determined to prove her country bona fides and expose Nashville’s double standards — “Used to say I spoke too country/And then the rejection came, said I wasn’t country enough,” she sings on the song “Ameriican Requiem” — she also made it clear that her project was bigger than any country crossover attempt. “This ain’t a Country album,” she said on social media before releasing her LP. “This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
Part of what Beyoncé may have accomplished with “Cowboy Carter,” however, was to bring wider recognition to Black artists operating in the country sphere. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary is the singer-songwriter Shaboozey, who was featured on two tracks on Beyoncé’s album and ended up with one the biggest hits of the year. His song “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has been the No. 1 country song for 12 weeks now, and also topped the Hot 100 chart for eight. At the CMAs, he is up for best new artist and single of the year with “A Bar Song.”
The CMAs will be held on Nov. 20 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Beyond the CMAs, the music industry is now watching to see how Beyoncé will fare at the next Grammy Awards, where she has won more trophies than any artist in history but has been shut out of the album of the year category four times.
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