The 2024 CMA Awards are here, but Beyoncé—whose Cowboy Carter skyrocketed up the country…
2024 VMAs: Shaboozey Admits It “Really Sucks” Beyoncé’ Was Shut Out of 2024 CMA Awards (Exclusive)
You can looker there, but you won’t find Beyoncé at the 2024 CMA Awards.
Despite releasing one of the top country albums of the year in Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé did not find herself among the nominees for this year’s Country Music Association Awards.
Therefore, the Queen Bey will be passing on the event.
It was a perceived snub that generated a lot of discourse, especially given that the album marked the biggest debut of the year for a country album and spent weeks on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. (It even went on to pick up 11 Grammy nominations, including four in the country categories.) The controversy led to many household names in country music weighing in.
Luke Bryan, for one, acknowledged the impact of Cowboy Carter—and clarified that nobody within the genre was upset by her entry.
“A lot of great music is sometimes overlooked, and sometimes you don’t get nominated,” he explained on Sirius XM’s Andy Cohen Live Oct. 1. “Everybody loved that Beyoncé made a country album. Nobody’s mad about it.”
He continued, “I’m all for everybody coming in and making country albums at all that. Just because she made one—just because I made one doesn’t mean I get any nominations.”
The 48-year-old added, though, that for him, the genre is about more than just the music someone makes. “Where things get a little tricky—if you’re gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit,” he added. “Come to an award show and high-five us, and have fun and get in the family, too. And I’m not saying she didn’t do that. But country music’s a lot about family.”
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Dolly Parton—whose song “Jolene” Beyoncé covered on Cowboy Carter—also defended the CMA Awards, noting she doesn’t believe Beyoncé’s exclusion was an intentional snub.
“Well, you never know,” Parton told Variety in September. “There’s so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can’t really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that.”
“I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose,” the 78-year-old. “I think it was just more of what the country charts and the country artists were doing, that do that all the time, not just a specialty album.”
Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood
Shaboozey, who was nominated for CMA Awards in the New Artist of the Year and Single of the Year categories, also weighed in on the nominations.
“It’s definitely unfortunate, if that was something she was looking to receive, something that she worked for,” he told E! News at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards. “It really sucks, because I know as an artist, you put a lot of time and work and a lot of energy into music.”
But, as he noted, the lack of nominations doesn’t take away from Beyoncé’s impact, in country music and beyond. “You know, awards aren’t everything,” the 29-year-old, who collaborated on two Cowboy Carter songs, continued. “As long as you’re connecting with people genuinely, making music that’s impacting people—that’s all that matters. She changed my life, and the lives of other artists as well.”
The CMA Awards air live on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, and keep reading for a complete breakdown of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
“Ameriican Requiem”
Within the first single on Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé lays it all out for her critics, seemingly referencing the backlash she faced after she performed at the CMA Awards in 2016.
“They used to say I spoke, ‘Too country’ / And the rejection came, said I wasn’t, ‘Country ‘nough,’” she sings, “Said I wouldn’t saddle up, but / If that ain’t country, tell me, what is? / Plant my bare feet on solid ground for years / They don’t, don’t know how hard I had to fight for this.”
At the time, fans noted that the CMA Awards appeared to take down footage of her surprise performance alongside The Chicks. However, in a statement to E! News, the organization shared they took down a promotional clip instead.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Parkwood
“Dolly P” & “Jolene”
Not only did the Grammy winner take Dolly Parton’s hit “Jolene” and make it her own: “Jolene, I’m a woman too / Thе games you play are nothing new / So you don’t want no hеat with me, Jolene,” but she also recruited the country star for an interlude that tipped its hat at another well-known character: Becky with the good hair.
“Hey miss Honey B, it’s Dolly P,” Dolly says, “You know that hussy with the good hair you sing about? / Reminded me of someone I knew back when / Except she has flamin’ locks of auburn hair / Bless her heart / Just a hair of a different color but it hurts just the same.”
Though Beyoncé made it clear that her take is more of a stern warning: “But you don’t want this smoke, so shoot your shot with someone else (You heard me).”
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Parkwood
“Sweet Honey Buckin”
On this track, the 32-time Grammy winner made note of one snub that stood out noticeably during the 2024 Grammys: Her not winning Album of the Year for Renaissance.
In fact, when her husband Jay-Z took the stage that night, he couldn’t help but call it out then and there—a moment that she doesn’t hesitate to highlight.
“A-O-T-Y, I ain’t win (Let’s go) / I ain’t stuntin’ ’bout them,” she sings, “Take that s–t on the chin/ Come back and fuck up the pen (Yeah).”
(Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood)
“Protector”
One of her more melodic singles, “Protector” opens up with none other her daughter Rumi asking about a lullaby.
The singer—who is also mom to Rumi’s twin brother Sir and their oldest sibling Blue Ivy—reflects on her role as a mom. “Born to be a protector, mm-hmm / Even though I know someday you’re gonna shine on your own.”
“I will be your projector, mm, mm-hmm / An apricot picked right off a given tree,” she notes. “I gave watеr to the soil / And now it feeds me, yeah, yеah (Yeah) / And there you are, shaded underneath it all / I feel proud of who I am /Because you need me.”
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood
“Amen”
Rounding out her 27-song album is “Amen,” which leads fans right back to the opening declaration of starting anew and making an experience all her own.
“Say a prayer for what has been /We’ll be the ones to purify our Fathers’ sins,” she sings, “American Requiem / Them old ideas (Yeah) are buried here (Yeah).”
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