On Sunday, February 2, the 67th annual Grammys Award was hosted in Los Angeles, California. Every year there’s typically controversy over who won what. This time, the topic of dispute is the winner of The Country Album of the Year. The five nominees consisted of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Chris Stapleton’s Higher, Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well, Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion, and Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind. 

When Taylor Swift read out the winning name on the card, the word “Beyoncé” stunned the crowd and even Beyoncé herself. How can an artist who received no nominations at the CMA’s  win County Album of the Year?, I was shocked. Although the album is immensely popular, having over 1 million streams, many argue that she’s not “authentic” saying even though she has country roots, Cowboy Carter isn’t country music. Multiple artists expressed this disappointment on X, tweeting bashful comments about the Academy and Beyoncé. 

I can see both sides of the argument. While there is no denying that Beyoncé is one of the most influential artists of all time and that this album has impressive numbers, her victory in the country industry raises suspicions. Her win fits the Grammys’ historical pattern of prioritizing commercial success and mainstream appeal rather than genre purity. Cowboy Carter is far from traditional country as it incorporates R&B and hip-hop and being new to the industry, I would not class her as a country artist.

In my eyes, the rationale behind choosing Beyoncé wasn’t pure and the four other artists were robbed. These artists have worked in the country industry for multiple years and define what it means to be a country singer. Beyoncé on the other hand, barely met the standard and for her this is just another piece of hardware to take home, having 35 grammy wins and 99 nominations, holding the record in both, while this moment would make some of these artists careers.  But I’m not surprised by the Academy’s decision. Is it even the Grammys without Beyoncé taking something home?