Beyoncé's Grammy Award for country music was historic, overdue and well-deserved

USA Today

07-02-2025

Good morning, and Happy Black History Month!
A new meme emerged last Sunday, during the broadcast of the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.
It was of Beyoncé, mouth agape after "Cowboy Carter" was announced as the winner of the Country Album of the Year Award. She was seemingly so unprepared, so shocked by the news, that she didn't even realize the underwires of her dress were poking out.
She was right to be surprised — and not just because she publicly stated that "Cowboy Carter" was not, in fact, a country album.
Beyoncé wasn't just the first Black woman to win the award, she was the first Black artist, period. What's more: She was the first Black artist to even be nominated in the category.
There's some necessary context here: After being presented in 1965 and 1966 as the Best Country & Western Album, the award was discontinued until the 1995 Grammy ceremony.
This 30-year period covered Charley Pride's peak — an insane run from the late 1960s through the early 1980s that netted Pride 29 No. 1 singles.
The award was in place, however, when Darius Rucker transitioned from lead singer of the southern rock band Hootie and the Blowfish to a top-selling solo country act. But despite his own successes — including the platinum-selling "True Believers" album, which featured his smash hit 'Wagon Wheel' and, like 'Country Carter,' rose to No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart — Rucker was never nominated for a Country Album of the Year Grammy.
Because of the nature of the Recording Academy's screening and nomination process, it's difficult to say where Rucker's Grammy hopes were been dashed. Perhaps folks in the initial screening room determined that the album failed to meet some benchmark for consideration.
Or maybe he cleared that hurdle but failed to garner enough support when Grammy voters whittled the list of eligible projects down to the five or six final nominees.
And that's to say nothing, of course, about the fact that Rucker is, for all intents and purposes, the only reasonable option for Black representation in the category.
Because Black artists have been so systematically eliminated from the genre, there are only a handful who've been able to gain the sort of traction that begets a Grammy nod. Factor in the three decades when the Country Album of the Year Award wasn't handed out (encompassing most of Pride's career and all of Linda Martell's) and the list of potentially eligible Black artists for that Award gets even smaller.
After last week's Grammys, folks took to social media to share their thoughts — many of them denouncing Beyoncé's Country Album win. They believe the decision was political, that she'd somehow strongarmed voters, and that the album, a mix of varying styles of music, shouldn't have even been considered.
Beyoncé was clear that she didn't consider her "Cowboy Carter" a traditional country album. Nonetheless, a screening room of industry experts decided it should be considered, and Grammy members voted for it twice — to make the final nomination list and to win the ultimate award.
Were they strongarmed? Who's to say. What's more likely, in my opinion, is that voters wanted to make a statement about musical genres and the unwritten rules that have long determined who gets to participate in them.And in that case, Beyoncé's win is political.
It's also Black History.
What else should you read this week?
For my column, I wrote about the importance of Black History Month, and the need to look beyond the achievements of a few notable African Americans. In this second Trump era, the most valuable lessons are in the day-to-day lives of common Black folk, who pushed on and never gave up, no matter the political climate.
USA Today's Kofi Mframa argues that the Recording Academy 'finally [got] it right' in naming 'Cowboy Carter' Album of the Year. In her piece, she considers Beyoncé's full body of work, arguing that 'she should've collected this accolade many times before.'
Finally, James Causey of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel offered his take on Snoop Dogg's performance at a Trump inauguration event, citing Malcolm X's position that Black celebrities, while popular, are often unfit as leaders of the community.
As always, it's a pleasure to be in your inbox, and if we haven't yet connected, I'd love to hear from you!Until next week…
Andrea Williams is an opinion columnist for The Tennessean and curator of the Black Tennessee Voices initiative. She has an extensive background covering country music, sports, race and society. Email her at [e-mail] or follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @AndreaWillWrite and BlueSky at @andreawillwrite.bsky.social.