Lainey keeping it classy as always.
From the moment it was announced back in 2024, Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER was destined to be one of the most controversial releases of the decade — if not ever — in country music. Of course, Beyoncé has remained one of the biggest figures in all of music over the past two decades, scoring massive hits with tracks like the RIAA Diamond-certified “Halo” and “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” as well as “Crazy in Love,” “Irreplaceable” and “Drunk in Love.”
For all intents and purposes, she has been nothing short of a staple in the pop and R&B world. Undoubtedly, her status in other genres made the move to country music all the more confusing and eyebrow-raising, especially considering the fact that, at the time, the genre was right in the middle of a renaissance commercially that we’re still seeing today.
Famously, the album itself was about exactly what you’d expect from a “country” album produced by Beyoncé. While it wasn’t too dissimilar to the pop-country trash that has been peddled by country radio over the course of the last decade, you could hardly consider it a tried and true country project. Hell, she didn’t even call the album strictly a country record, instead calling COWBOY CARTER a “Beyoncé album.”
“This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.“
While there have been a seemingly endless amount of think pieces written about the lack of love shown for her in Nashville, with many coming to the conclusion that it stems from bigotry and racism, the simple fact of the matter is that Beyoncé did not want to interact with the country community. From the start, it was clear that she had no intention to stay in country music or frankly even engage with the genre. She made next to no appearances in Nashville, did not appear at any country festivals or award shows and has shown no signs of making another country record.
Despite all the controversy surrounding the release, COWBOY CARTER still received an incredible amount of love from non-country outlets everywhere…. and predictably so. Though the album had an mind-boggling 72 co-writers, the most among any projects nominated and an incredibly dissonant sound overall, it would score not one but three Grammys in 2025 for Best Country Album, Best Country Duo/Group Performance and the highly-coveted, all-genre Album of the Year.
The Country Album of the Year win was particularly historic. Beating out the likes of Chris Stapleton’s Higher, Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well, Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion and Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind, she became the first black artist in history to take home the award.
Unsurprisingly, the win ruffled a lot of feathers for a variety of different reasons. With that being said, however, Lainey Wilson recently revealed that she had nothing but love and respect for the “Irreplaceable” singer despite losing out on the award.
During a segment in her new Netflix documentary, Keepin’ Country Cool, which debuted on March 17th, the “Watermelon Moonshine” singer would recall walking over to Beyoncé after the win, noting that she could tell they both had a lot of respect for each other. Additionally, she’d note that Beyoncé told her that the recognition and acceptance meant a lot to her.
“I didn’t win, but it was time for us to lose something. I walked over to Beyoncé, and she was so kind. We had a lot of great things to say to each other. You could tell that we both had a respect for each other; it was like a ‘I see you, you see me, kind of thing. She said, ‘It means a lot that you walked over here and did that.'”
Wilson would finish the brief segment by explaining that she never wanted to make the “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” singer feel excluded from the genre, despite many pushing towards it. And you probably even argue, Lainey made an effort to make her feel included despite Bey’s desire to not really be a part of it. In particular, she’d note that she’s always viewed country music as a genre that will “welcome everybody with open arms.”
“I’m not one of the artists that’s like, ‘Hey, you go stay over there on your side. That’s not the way that I was raised. Also, when I think of country music, it’s always been: welcome everybody with open arms.”
You can always count on Lainey for a classy response.
Watch the Keepin’ Country Cool trailer here:
