Source: Emma McIntyre / Getty
The country world is shooketh after Beyoncé came through and crushed the buildings.
In March 2024, Beyoncé dropped her country album Cowboy Carter and won the Best Country Album Grammy, and became the first Black artist to win the award. Country artists (who…how can I say this…drive pickup trucks with big tires and cuff the brim of their baseball caps to the point of strangulation) got all upset and forgot that Queen Bey was born and raised in Houston.
So to appease the unseasoned folks among us, the Grammys announced that they will have two new categories ahead of the 2026 Grammy Awards: Best Traditional Country Album and Best Album Cover.
The Best Country Album category has been renamed Best Contemporary Country Album, while Best Traditional Country Album has been added, according to a Grammys news release.
Yes, the Grammys have segregated the little award categories so that non-conventional country artists (read Black people) don’t win the Grammys for Best Country Album because those who dress up to celebrate a war that they lost can’t handle it.
Don’t believe me?
In 2016, Beyoncé performed her song “Daddy Lessons” at the Country Music Awards. Alan Jackson reportedly walked out, and Travis Tritt was so upset that he went to social media to cry, “I love honest to God country music and feel the need to stand up for it at all costs. We don’t need pop or rap artists to validate us.”
Fam, they act like Beyoncé went on stage as Sasha Fierce and spit: “Hips tik tok when I dance/On that Demon Time, she might start an OnlyFans (OnlyFans).”
She literally sang a country song on a country stage, but I know, this isn’t about race.
According to the Grammys’ new definitions, traditional country will be considered “…more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums.” Traditional country will also include sub-genres, like western, western swing and outlaw country.
Sounds like a whole lot of words to say participation trophy. AmIrite?