Beyoncé can't seem to win any love within the country music industry. The CMA Awards completely shut her out from real consideration despite her earnest attempts in the genre. Naturally, people are a bit riled up after Nashville seemingly snubs Cowboy Carter. However, one person doesn't really buy that it's an intentional hit.
Recently, Whoopi Goldberg discusses the latest bit of discourse about the upcoming CMA Awards. Particularly, she discusses the lack of nominations for Beyoncé, who walks away with absolutely no consideration from the committee. A lot of people take offense to this lack of representation for a variety of reasons, valid or not.
However, Whoopi doesn't seem to take issue with the fact Beyoncé didn't get any love from Nashville. Rather, she chops it up to a plain taste difference. "A lot of people are surprised — I don't know why — that it didn't receive a single CMA Award nomination. Well, this is the question: Are you surprised?" she questions before opening up for discussion. "I don't think she was snubbed, I think they just didn't... it wasn't for them."
Did The CMA Awards Truly Snub Beyoncé?
The CMA Awards don't feel necessarily entitled to anoint Beyoncé with any nominations at their show. Still, I push back on the idea that it's simply a matter of taste. Even as a skeptic of Cowboy Carter as an album, it definitely plays as something industry types for awards shows would adore. It does well to showcase and embrace the rich history of country music. Moreover, Beyoncé also puts in the work to garner acceptance from the genre's legends. Yet, they ignore the music outright.
The instinct is to reject her because she's 'an outsider' or whatever. This doesn't stop a full embrace of Post Malone, who loves the genre but it also wasn't his first choice either. Additionally, the industry loves their crossover artists. We should never forget how much country tried their hardest to get in cahoots with rap for so much of the 2000s and 2010s. They wanna be 'cool' with Nelly, they reference plenty of hip-hop in the past. I don't think Beyoncé is the problem if Machine Gun Kelly gets love for doing a bad John Denver interpolation. It's bizarre why country music doesn't embrace Queen Bey. We'll see if they change their tune for the ACM Awards.
