Dolly Parton weighs in on Beyoncé's CMA Awards snub: 'Well, you never know'
The queen of country is offering her two cents about Beyoncé receiving zero nominations at the 2024 Country Music Association Awards, despite her record-breaking album "Cowboy Carter."
Dolly Parton spoke to Variety about a number of topics, and the outlet was sure to get her thoughts about Queen Bey being shut out of this year's awards, which are considered one of the most prestigious awards in the country music industry.
Parton said: "Well, you never know. 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. But I didn’t even realize that until somebody asked me that question. But it was a wonderful album. She can be very, very proud of, and I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good. So I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose. 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."
Some fans on social media reacted to Parton's comments, pointing out that Post Malone received four nominations from his album "F-1 Trillion" despite it being his first country project. He snagged nominations for single of the year, song of the year, musical event of the year and music video of the year.
The "Cowboy Carter" collaborator and country music legend did, however, praise both artists for their respective country albums and dives into the genre.
Parton said, "I’ve been fortunate enough to be on both those albums. Well, 'Jolene' was in Beyoncé’s, and I thought that was a great album. She’s a country girl in Texas and Louisiana, so she grew up with that base. It wasn’t like she just appeared out of nowhere. Post Malone has loved country music his whole life, and then I got to do the duet with him on his album, and I think it’s a fantastic album. I thought both those albums were great."
As fans know, the Beyoncé released "Cowboy Carter" on March 29 and has since made history and broken multiple records. As a result, she has been a huge catalyst for the recent spotlight on Black country artists and the genre's roots.
On the album, Beyoncé did her own rendition of Parton's hit 1973 single "Jolene." She also included Parton on an interlude titled "Dolly P," where she refers to the singer as "Miss Honey Bey." Parton also appears on "Tyrant," kicking off the track with "time to strike up a match and light up this juke joint." And since the album's release, Parton has been vocal about singing its praises and giving Queen Bey her flowers.
Prior to sharing the project with the rest of the world, Beyoncé got candid about creating the 5-year project and alluded to her 2016 performance at the CMA Awards.
In a post on Instagram, she wrote: "This album has been over five years in the making. 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. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical."
"It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history," she wrote. "The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. Act ii is a result of challenging myself and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work."
Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network's Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dolly Parton responds to Beyonce's CMA Awards snub
