Beyoncé has won her first country award at the Billboard Music Awards, taking home the title of top female country artist.
With this win, she has also become the first Black woman to win a country award at the Billboard Music Awards. She was also nominated for top dance/electronic artist and top country album for her eighth studio album, Cowboy Carter.
The award comes just months after Cowboy Carter was shut out by the Country Music Awards, receiving zero nominations despite its commercial and critical success.
Cowboy Carter marked her eighth album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It was a trailblazing album for Beyoncé – with its release, she became the first Black female artist to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and the first Black female artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 with a country song with lead single Texas Hold ‘Em.
Although Beyoncé is widely regarded as one of the most successful and influential musicians of all time – having been crowned the best pop singer of the 21st century just last week – the megastar has faced hostility from some country stars and listeners for her forays into country music, highlighting the issue of racism within the genre.
Beyoncé, who was born and raised in Houston has experimented with country music prior to Cowboy Carter, notably in her 2016 song Daddy Lessons. But when she appeared with the Chicks in a surprise performance of the song at the 2016 CMAs, the reaction in the audience and online was mixed, with some expressing anger at her inclusion at the event.
This experience is one of the forces behind Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé seemed to suggest in an Instagram post prior to the album’s release.
She shared that the album 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.”
She concluded by stating “this ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
Since its release, Cowboy Carter has received praise and support from numerous country mainstays including collaborators Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton, as well as Maren Morris, Billy Ray Cyrus and Reba McEntire.
The 58th Annual Country Music Association Awards are set to take place in November, and the Nominations came out this week. A notable absence from the list of contenders was Beyonce. This, despite Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album hitting number one on the Billboard country albums chart, making her the first Black woman to top the chart since its inception in 1964. CBC’s Elamin Abdelmahmoud was on Here and Now to share his thoughts.
Cowboy Carter‘s award season isn’t over – it’s up for album of the year and best country album at the Grammy’s. In November, it was announced that Beyoncé is nominated in 11 categories, bringing her total career nominations up to 99 and making her the most nominated artist in Grammy Awards history.
The 67th Grammy Awards will be taking place in early February.
