TheCMA Awardslit a fire inBeyoncein 2016.
There was bristling within the audience, the first spark of contention.
Online, scandalized viewers torched the appearance.
Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ was snubbed when the nominations for the 2024 CMA Awards were announced on Monday.BLAIR CALDWELL*
Beyonce let that fire smolder for nearly a decade.
All the while,Cowboy Carterwas cooking.
Can you hear me?/I said, Do you hear me?
Nothing was ever going to.
On Monday, it was revealed that Beyonce didnt receive any nominations forCowboy Carterat the 2024 CMA Awards.
Not for the crushing ballad 16 Carriages, where she muses on legacy and sacrifice.
That night, Wallen lost all three of his nominations.
He later toldBillboardthat the losses only bothered me for like five minutes.
It was of no consequence to him either way.
It wouldnt have changed anything, really.
These noms set a really interesting precedent.
Shaboozey also nodded to Beyonce being passed over,writingon X, That goes without saying.
After nearly six decades, that isnt a prize worth fighting for.
Its an egregious oversight.
Country musics history is riddled with those.
Linda Martell, a pioneer in the genre, shattered a number of these glass ceilings.
She was even advertised in the South as the First Female Negro Country Artist.
The target of vicious verbal attacks from audiences decades before those assaults were rampant on the internet.
Genres are a funny little concept, arent they?
Martell asks on Spaghettii, which also features Shaboozey.
This aint a country album, she wrote.
This is a Beyonce album.
Its better framed as the reason why she never needed it to in the first place.
Wherever he goes sonically, space is made for him.
But country musics old guard remains stationed at its doorway.
Beyonce is the most decorated artist in Grammys history with 32 wins.
Even if they didnt see her.
The people who want to hear the music and receive its message are listening.
