Why Was Beyoncé Shut Out at the 2024 CMA Awards?

When the Country Music Association dropped its annual CMA Awards list of nominees on Monday morning (Sept. 9), it brought with it the usual cast of snubs, surprises and shockers. But this year, one particular omission looms large.

Where the heck is Beyoncé?!

The pop megastar finally dropped her long-teased country project, Cowboy Carter, in late March, making it eligible for inclusion on the nominees list at the 2024 CMA Awards. But Beyoncé’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the batch of nominated artists this year, either for the album as a whole or for an individual song.

What Could Beyoncé Have Been Nominated for at the 2024 CMA Awards?

CMA voters had several opportunities to include Beyoncé in the nominees list. Of course, there are artist-specific categories like Entertainer and Female Vocalist of the Year, though both of those would be unlikely fits for Beyoncé, since Cowboy Carter is presumably a one-off project, and she doesn’t plan to pursue a career in country music full-time moving forward.

However, there were several options where Cowboy Carter — or one of its songs — could have made sense.

• The Musical Event of the Year category was probably the strongest contender for a Cowboy Carter track inclusion. According to the CMA’s website, that award spotlights “a collaboration of two or more people either or all of whom are known as a country artist,” and specifies that the nominated song must appear on an album.
  • Cowboy Carter included a few collaborations that would fit the bill, but “Blackbiird” — her reimagined version of the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” featuring rising acts Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts — feels like an especially good choice for this category.
• The album’s lead single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” became the No. 1 song in country music in its first week, setting or equaling a number of records in the process. The week following, it moved into the No. 1 spot on Billboard‘s all-genre Hot 100 chart.
  • That kind of performance could certainly have merited inclusion in the CMA Single of the Year category, which requires songs to be Top 10 hits in order to be considered.
• As a whole, Cowboy Carter could have been considered for Album of the Year, too. Beyoncé’s release was perhaps the most dominant new country album of the first half of 2024, making it a prime choice for inclusion in this category.

Related: How Does the CMA Awards Voting Work?

Why Wasn’t Beyoncé Nominated at the 2024 CMA Awards?

No one knows for sure what goes on in the voting rooms for CMA Awards shows, but there are a few points worth considering about why Beyoncé might have been shut out.

• The first, most obvious and most generalized observation is the continuing lack of equality between Black and white artists in country music. Black artists and female artists have both historically received significantly less from the genre — in terms of radio play, label representation and tour slots — than their white, male counterparts.
  • Black artists have been underrepresented at awards shows like the CMA Awards over the years. In 2023, Tracy Chapman became the first Black person ever to win Song of the Year at the Awards show, courtesy of Luke Combs‘ hit cover of her “Fast Car.”
  • Her win also marked the first ever time that a Black woman has won a CMA Award, according to the Tennessean.
  • Had Beyoncé been nominated for Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter, she would have been the first Black woman to be nominated for that award.
• Beyoncé’s history with the CMA is a little tense: Her performance at the 2016 CMA Awards with the Chicks brought mixed reviews from viewers.
• Plenty of fans called it a highlight of the awards show, but the Chicks’ frontwoman Natalie Maines subsequently said she’d fielded some unwelcoming comments from “racist a–holes.” One unnamed manager also alleged to Billboard that he saw Alan Jackson walk out of his front row seat in protest of Beyoncé’s performance, although the evidence that that ever happened is pretty slim.
• As she prepared to release Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé recalled an instance where she “did not feel welcomed” in the genre, presumably alluding to that CMA Award show in 2016.
  • It’s possible that that history could have played into CMA voters’ decisions to keep her out of the running at this year’s awards show.

What Are Fans Saying About Beyoncé’s Exclusion From the CMAs Nominees List?

Fans supporting the Cowboy Carter omission frequently pointed to the fact that Beyoncé herself identified the album not as a country album, but simply as “a Beyoncé album.”

But other social media users interpreted the CMA’s exclusion differently. “The CMAs have once again deferred to those in the industry who prefer to deny Black artists the recognition they deserve,” one Beyoncé fan account states.

“I don’t want to see NOBODY saying Beyoncé buys awards never again. NEVER,” another user points out.

A third opined that the level of controversy surrounding Beyoncé’s exclusion itself proves that she deserved to be nominated. “Beyoncé still dominating the conversation around the CMAs despite them trying to exclude her,” that post reads.

The 2024 CMA Awards are set to air Wednesday, Nov. 20 on ABC. The most nominated acts of the night include Morgan Wallen, Cody Johnson and Chris Stapleton.

Carena Liptak is an Associate Editor and staff writer at Taste of Country. She specializes in breaking country music news, interviews and lists. In particular, she’s got a soft spot for sad songs — check out her roundup of the 50 Saddest Country Songs of All Time!