I feel like the easier answer is that the CMA Awards are just a joke at this point.
Of course we’ve talked for years about how bad the awards shows have gotten, and the way some artists are consistently left out while recognizing artists who have had much less success but “play the game,” so to speak. It all comes down to a popularity contest with voters and a trading game between labels to ensure that certain artists take home the awards. And in the process, it’s made the actual awards pretty much meaningless.
I mean, Zach Bryan is one of the biggest country artists in the world right now, and he was nominated for ONE award this year. And even then, it was for his collaboration with Kacey Musgraves.
I can go on and on about artists who are consistently snubbed by these awards shows, for any number of reasons. Tyler Childers has never been recognized. Same with Sturgill Simpson. Miranda Lambert never gets the respect she deserves at these shows. And don’t even get me started on Eric Church being constantly overlooked for awards.
It’s a joke, and at this point pretty much everybody recognizes it.
But for Mathew Knowles, father of Beyoncé, he believes racism was the reason his daughter wasn’t nominated.
Beyoncé created quite the frenzy when she dropped her country-inspired album Cowboy Carter back in March. At the time, the pop superstar made clear that the album wasn’t a “country” album, despite featuring collaborations with Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, along with a reimagined version of “Jolene.”
Speaking on Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé said it was inspired by an experience where she didn’t feel welcome in country music, though she said it wasn’t a country album:
“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 archive…
This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
Despite the proclamation from Bey herself, the album hit #1 on both the all-genre Billboard 200 album chart, as well as the Top Country Albums chart, with Beyoncé becoming the first black woman to have the top album on the country chart.
So yesterday when the nominations were announced for the CMA Awards, many of her fans were upset that she wasn’t among the nominees – and predictably, blamed it on racism.
We all know the CMA’s are racist asf . Lmao I’m not shocked one mf bit . When beyonce performed with the Dixie chicks , them mfs was mad as FUCK 😂💀
— EVERLASTINGNOBSLOBBER🍬 (@theemrsparker) September 9, 2024
Racist cma's just jealous of Beyoncé, foolish people.
— Ada (@babysdayout420) September 9, 2024
Racism still exists in the music industry…Black people played a significant role in the evolution of the country music genre. Beyoncé created this album following an experience of feeling alienated from the Country Music Awards….and the SAME people shut her out…again! #CMA https://t.co/ed4qTg7d94
— Sarah (@SarahFlygerian) September 9, 2024
Of course, there were a couple of black artists who did receive nominations. Shaboozey was nominated twice, for both New Artist of the Year and for Single of the Year for his smash hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” And The War and Treaty picked up a well-deserved nomination for Duo of the Year, an award that feels like it should be theirs to lose given the competition (but again, once label politics get involved it’s hard to depend on voters to do the right thing).
But Mathew Knowles told TMZ that he believes race is the reason his daughter wasn’t nominated too:
“There’s more white people in America and unfortunately they don’t vote based on ability and achievements, it’s still sometimes a white and black thing.”
Knowles said he wasn’t surprised that Beyoncé was snubbed, given the reception she received after performing on the show with the Dixie Chicks in 2016 and the lack of apology at the time from the CMAs.
But ultimately, he claims that CMA voters are “showing it still comes down to white and black.”
Of course there’s no real way of knowing what goes through voters’ minds, but they’ve shown time and time again that they’re not very smart so I feel like that may be the real explanation here.
I mean, don’t even get me started on Dan + Shay being nominated for Duo of the Year over Muscadine Bloodline.
