Commentary: Beyoncé award snub by Country Music Association hits a sour note

Lord knows I don’t want to sound like Kanye West, but when megastar Beyoncé is snubbed by the Country Music Association despite topping the charts in that genre all year, well, somebody has to say something.

It was West who famously — and controversially — interrupted Taylor Swift to come to Beyoncé’s defense after Swift beat out Beyoncé for Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

“I’mma let you finish …” West said after he snatched the mic from Swift before a stunned crowd at New York City’s iconic Radio City Music Hall. “But Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time.”

No chance of that happening at this year’s Country Music Awards because, unlike what happened 15 years ago at the MTV event, Beyoncé wasn’t even nominated.

Despite having the biggest new country album of the year, Beyoncé — who hails from Texas, by the way — was completely snubbed by the 2024 Country Music Awards.

Her “Cowboy Carter” album dominated the country chart, and spent 22 weeks on the Billboard top 200 album list.

It certainly wasn’t because association officials have something against crossover artists.

Pop sensations Post Malone and Shaboozey each earned CMA nominations, while Beyoncé was shut out in every category.

And the snub couldn’t be attributed to a lack of buzz. The album’s lead single, “Texas, Hold ‘Em,” dropped during the Super Bowl.

The song didn’t exactly sneak up on anybody.

So, why didn’t Beyoncé’s country contribution get the recognition it deserved?

Well, that’s pretty obvious.

“When the CMAs make such a clear statement saying they don’t need Beyoncé, they send a clear message that aligns them with the forces desperately trying to hold onto a mythical American past that never was,” Rashad Robinson, president of the civil rights group Color of Change, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Recognizing Beyoncé at the CMAs would force everyone to confront a multitude of truths: the roots of country music in Black music, the history of racism in country music and the prospect of having to give up not only their white audiences but the part of their audience that can’t stand to see Black excellence succeed in this country. ”

CMA defenders blame Beyoncé’s team for not doing enough on the promotional side. That’s like blaming the New York Yankees if Aaron Judge hits another 62 home runs and gets left off the MVP ballot.

The home runs should be promotion enough.

Critics said Beyoncé may have done herself in with an Instagram message that appeared to contradict her album’s content.

“This ain’t a country album,” she declared. “This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”

But a closer look would have put the post in its proper context.

Beyoncé explained that her eighth solo studio album was a reaction to her feeling excluded in country music.

“This album has been over five years in the making,” she wrote ahead of the album’s release. ”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. “

Beyonce was referring to a performance in 2016 at the Country Music Awards, where she performed her hit “Daddy Lessons” with the band “Dixie Chicks.”

The performance generated a backlash of hateful and racist comments on social media, including one Facebook post accusing Beyoncé of trying to “destroy the image of country music.”

The Chicks have since dropped the “Dixie” from their name.

Beyoncé hasn’t commented publicly on the snub. It would be interesting to see if she remains as hopeful as she did when the album came out.

“It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world,” she wrote at the time. “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.”

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