A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Country Music Association has announced the nominees for the CMA Awards. One of the top-selling albums of 2024 is missing from the ballot.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEXAS HOLD 'EM")
BEYONCE: (Singing) This ain't Texas (woo), ain't no hold 'em (hey). So lay your cards down, down, down, down.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, this year, Beyonce became the first Black female artist to top the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, yet no nomination. So snub or no snub? NPR culture reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento is here to talk us through it. So when this story broke, Isabella, I could hear the low, rising sound of the Beyhive getting upset. They had to have been not happy.
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Yeah. So obviously, the Beyhive is very angry. Some music critics have called out the CMA for excluding Beyonce, and some of the younger artists who are featured on "Cowboy Carter" have spoken up as well. So Shaboozey, who's been climbing the charts and received two CMA nominations - he told E! News that it was, quote, "unfortunate" that Beyonce didn't receive recognition. But he also emphasized that she changed his life by including him on her album. And that's a sentiment he shares with Tiera Kennedy, another young singer-songwriter in the country scene who posted this video to X.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TIERA KENNEDY: I don't think she made this album to get a CMA nomination. I think she made this album to share the history of country music and to open the door for Black country artists like me.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, I could hear that. Beyonce probably didn't make this award for - or album for awards. But do we know if she actually submitted to the CMA for consideration?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: So the CMA awards are based on a write-in ballot. I spoke with Brian Mansfield, who's the managing editor of Country Insider, and he was previously on the CMA Board of Directors. Here's how he explained it.
BRIAN MANSFIELD: Unlike the Grammys, where the artist teams submit themselves, CMA professional members, which are the voting members, nominate their favorite artists, recordings, songs.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: So, I mean, we don't know whether people wrote Beyonce onto the initial ballot, but what we do know is that she didn't make it to the final list. Mansfield says earning a nomination requires a lot of campaigning. He says it's all about who you know in the country music industry and who you're getting to vote for you.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So Beyonce didn't get those votes. Other artists on "Cowboy Carter" did. You mentioned Shaboozey - Post Malone, too. So does this feel like maybe the CMAs are adapting a bit to change in the industry?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: So some critics are saying, yes. You know, artists like Shaboozey and Post Malone make country music, but they also dabble in other genres like rock and hip-hop, and they are receiving recognition from the CMA. But, I mean, that's what "Cowboy Carter" did, too. Beyonce herself said it's not a straight country album. It fuses bluegrass and R&B and all these other sounds. So the fact that it didn't get any nods from the CMA raises questions about who the industry is willing to accept.
MARTÍNEZ: And those questions aren't new.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That's right. So there was a lot of backlash to Beyonce's 2016 performance of "Daddy Lessons" with the Chicks at the CMAs. She said "Cowboy Carter" was born from an experience of not feeling welcomed. And, I mean, neither Beyonce's team or the CMAs responded to our request for comment on this. But it does seem like "Cowboy Carter" was never an album that was trying to conform to the country music standard, and its success wasn't embraced by the Country Music Association.
MARTÍNEZ: One more thing, Isabella - I mean, ultimately, it's Beyonce. I mean, does she feel this, you think, the snub?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: I mean, I think on some level. You know, when you're creating this kind of project, it maybe has to sting a little bit.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR culture reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. Thank you very much for not snubbing us, MORNING EDITION. Thank you.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "II HANDS II HEAVEN")
BEYONCE: (Singing) Two hands to heaven, my whiskey up high, oh. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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