Surprise! The CMA’s Are Racist (Still)

Despite making history, Beyoncé's critically acclaimed Cowboy Carter was shut out of this year's awards.

By Audra Heinrichs  |  September 9, 2024 | 6:05pm
Photo: Getty Images EntertainmentMusic Beyoncé
Surprise! The CMA’s Are Racist (Still)

On Monday, the Country Music Association announced the nominations for the 58th Annual CMA Awards, and folks, you’ll never believe who wasn’t included…Beyoncé—or, as I like to call her, the woman with one of the most critically acclaimed, fan-celebrated country albums of 2024.

In case you forgot, in addition to hitting No. 1 on the Billboard County albums chart, the groundbreaking album received beyond-rave reviews: Variety deemed Cowboy Carter a “tour-de-force,” Rolling Stone thought it “a brilliant dissertation on genre,” and the Washington Post asserted it “deserved respect.” And yet, where the CMA is concerned, it’s not getting any. Are we shocked? Sadly, no. The CMA has always been this way (read: racist). Even still, given the history Cowboy Carter made (this year, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top the Billboard country chart since its 1964 inception), you’d expect one nomination as a performative display of “progress,” at least.

Instead, Morgan Wallen—the man who quite publicly used the N-word just three years ago—was. given seven nominations (including Entertainer of the Year). Worse yet? Post Malone, a collaborator on Cowboy Carter, scored four. Shaboozey, too, received a nomination for best new artist of the year.

There’s a cruel irony in the fact that Cowboy Carter was quite literally prompted by the racist backlash Beyoncé received after performing with The Chicks at the 2016 CMAs performance–or, as she elegantly put it in the album’s announcement: “An experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t.” Clearly, the CMA has simply decided it’s quite comfortable turning its chaps around and showing its whole unwashed ass.

Fans—including those within the industry—are justifiably outraged.

“That goes without saying. Thank you @Beyonce for opening a door for us, starting a conversation, and giving us one of the most innovative country albums of all time!” Shaboozey tweeted. Meanwhile, Dionne Warwick had a more direct response: “Absolutely ridiculous.” 
An album that dominated charts, paid homage to both the old and new guards of Black country, and earned unanimous accolades not being honored is—in Warwick’s words—absolutely ridiculous. Above all else though, it’s yet another reminder that the CMA is an inherently racist institution that’s refused to evolve as the genre has. Beyoncé’s exclusion is not only their loss but with any luck, their downfall.

 
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