Love her or hate her, Beyoncé has been the talk of country music so far this year. Now, Luke Bryan is offering his stance on the artist and some advice.
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Beyoncé fans are angry at the CMA Awards snubbing Beyoncé following her country music debut with Cowboy Carter. However, Bryan says that if Beyoncé wants country music to embrace her then she needs to embrace country music.
Bryan recently on SiriusXM's Andy Cohen Live radio show and discussed Beyoncé. The latter has discussed feeling like an outsider in the genre (namely following a controversial 2016 CMA performance). Bryan admitted that Beyoncé has many fans, but he also said that the singer hasn't really embraced country music fans and the industry either.
"It's a tricky question," Bryan said . "Obviously Beyoncé made a country album. And Beyoncé has a lot of fans out there that have her back, and if she doesn't get something they want, man, they come at you ... as fans should do."
Luke Bryan Offers His Advice On The Matter
Bryan said, "It's a tough thing to say" on why Beyoncé got snubbed by the CMA awards. "I mean, listen, I'm all for everybody coming in and making country albums and all that. But just by declaring that, just because she made one..." he said.
Bryan admitted that a lot of music gets overlooked. Plainly, he said, "Sometimes you don't get nominated." But Bryan said that singers and the community love having Beyoncé in the genre.
"Everybody loved that Beyoncé made a country album. Nobody's mad about it," said Bryan. "But where things get a little tricky ... you know, if you're gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit."
However, Bryan said you can't really blame the country community if Beyoncé is refusing to engage with them. "Beyoncé can do exactly what she wants to. She's probably the biggest star in music," he said. "But come to an awards show and high-five us and have fun and get in the family too ... Country music's a lot about family."
Meanwhile, Dolly Parton also defended the CMA Awards following the backlash over Beyoncé.
Parton said, "There's so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can't really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that ... not just a specialty album."
