Beyonce is not nominated at this year’s Country Music Association Awards.
The nominees for the 58th CMA Awards were announced today (Sept. 9) and Beyonce’s name was notably absent from the list. The awards are considered some of the most prestigious in the country music community, and many fans were expecting that Beyonce was going to be among this year’s nominees due to her groundbreaking album Cowboy Carter.
The project was snubbed from Album of the Year, which the association says is “judged on all aspects including, but not limited to, artist’s performance, musical background, engineering, packaging, design, art, layout and liner notes.”
Many fans expected that Cowboy Carter would get a nomination because of its success on the Billboard charts, including its crossover to the country charts upon its release. Additionally, the album is one of the year’s most-acclaimed projects where it holds a 91 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic.
The CMAs also details that the awards are “determined by eligible voting CMA members comprised of professionals within the Country Music industry,” according to a press release.
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Cowboy Carter was released on March 29 of this year and broke multiple records upon its release. Its lead single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” allowed Beyonce to become the first Black woman to top Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart when it debuted at No. 1. Additionally, she became the first woman to have topped both Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs since the lists’ inception.
Furthermore, Cowboy Carter debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s top country albums chart, becoming the first Black woman to do so there. It also reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Americana/folk albums and top album sales charts.
Despite the success, fans are now calling foul that the album was snubbed from the CMAs.
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