Luke Bryan is sharing his thoughts on Beyoncé not receiving any CMA Award nominations for Cowboy Carter.
The country music singer opened up about the controversy with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, two months before the CMA Awards take place at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. “It’s a tricky question because, 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,” Bryan explained, noting that “a lot of great music is overlooked” at the awards ceremony.
“Just because she made one … just ’cause I make one, I don’t get any nominations,” he continued.
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Cowboy Carter not only topped the Billboard 200 for two weeks, but reigned at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart for a full month. Plus, lead single “Texas Hold ‘Em” made the 32-time Grammy winner the first Black woman to hit No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs ranking, a position it held for 10 weeks.
However, country radio didn’t fully embrace the album. The lead single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” peaked at No. 33 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. A follow-up, a reworking of Dolly Parton’s 1974 classic “Jolene,” peaked at No. 56.
“Everybody loved that Beyoncé made a country album. Nobody’s mad about it,” Bryan added. “But where things get a little tricky — if you’re gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit. Like, Beyoncé can do exactly what she wants to. She’s probably the biggest star in music. But come to an award show and high-five us and have fun and get in the family, too. And I’m not saying she didn’t do that … but country music is a lot about family.”
However, Bey may have a reason to keep at arm’s length from the country music family. Back in 2016, Bey performed her country-leaning song “Daddy Lessons” at the 2016 Country Music Association Awards alongside The Chicks.
A pre-show announcement teasing her performance sparked calls for a CMAs boycott on social media, with some people blasting the awards show for including Bey, whose tribute to the Black Panther Party during her performance of “Formation” at the 2016 Super Bowl had also earned pushback. After the performance, there was no mention of her appearance on the CMAs website.
In a March post on Instagram, the “16 Carriages” singer wrote that the album was “born out of an experience” she’d had years prior where she “did not feel welcomed,” which many fans took to be the 2016 controversy.
