Awards

Beyoncé made history Sunday night (Feb. 2) when Cowboy Carter won the Grammy for best country album, making the superstar the first Black artist to win in the category since it was reintroduced in 1995, after a nearly three-decade absence.

Earlier in the evening, she also captured the award for best country duo/group performance for “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus, which was the first time a Black lead artist had won that award since The Pointer Sisters in 1975. Bey capped the evening by winning the night’s biggest prize, album of the year, an honor that had previously eluded her during her 25-year career as a member of Destiny’s Child and a solo artist, despite winning more Grammys than anyone in history.

Many in the country music community are applauding Beyoncé’s country wins and hope they will help lift up other Black artists in country music today, many of whom have been unable to get a foothold on radio or gain much traction within the genre.

Beyoncé’s wins for best country album and album of the year are overall wins for country music, says Big Machine Label Group founder/president/CEO Scott Borchetta. “Beyoncé made a brilliant album that was absolutely worthy of album of the year,” he says. “Every event and moment like this is a move forward and continues to widen the aperture and acceptance of what country music is and can be.”

Willie “Prophet” Stiggers, co-founder of the Black Music Action Coalition, agrees, telling Billboard: “Cowboy Carter pushed country music’s genre redlining into the public zeitgeist – but as Beyoncé herself has mentioned, Black artists and writers have been pushing against Music Row’s gates for decades. Cowboy Carter is such a powerful body of work that it finally broke some long-held barriers. [Recording Academy CEO] Harvey Mason jr. and the academy also deserve acknowledgement for working intentionally to foster a younger, more diverse voting membership, which helped to bring some of those barriers down. However, it’s important that the industry – and Music Row specifically – understand that this moment, this album, is a beginning, not a destination. … ‘Genre’ is still too often used as coded language for race, and it’s far past time for that to change.”

Others see Beyoncé’s win as an isolated victory. “I love that Beyoncé won for best country album and

for Cowboy Carter last night at the Grammys, but it’s a win for Beyonce, not necessarily for Black artists in country music,” says Cameo Carlson, CEO of artist development/management services company Mtheory and manager of Black country singer Mickey Guyton, who received three Grammy nominations at the 2022 Grammy Awards but took home none.

“The fact that Beyonce’s album wasn’t even nominated for other Nashville or country-centric awards, like the CMA Awards, is indicative of the work that still needs to be done in Nashville and in country music,” Carlson continues. “The Grammys are a global award for all intents and purpose; the hardcore country awards — and the large body of people that make up the voting bloc for those awards — did not embrace Beyonce or Cowboy Carter, decrying [the album] as ‘not really country’ or making the excuse that she didn’t ‘play the Nashville game’ by coming and investing time in the country music community or in Nashville.”

Beyonce had already rewritten the country rulebook with the album before her Grammy victories. Following its March 29, 2024, release, Cowboy Carter debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, making her the first Black woman to reach the pinnacle, dating back to the chart’s January 1964 inception. She also became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart with “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which stayed at the top for 10 weeks. However, the song peaked at No. 33 on the Country Airplay chart.  

While, as Carlson mentions, there had been much talk about the Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter not receiving a CMA Award nomination for album of the year (or any CMA Award nominations), such an occurrence is hardly rare. There have been more than a dozen records that have won the Grammy for best country album since the Recording Academy brought the category back in 1995 that did not receive a CMA nomination for album of the year, much less a win, including Shania Twain’s The Woman in Me (1996), the then-named Dixie Chicks’ Wide Open Spaces (1999) and Tanya Tucker’s While I’m Living (2020). The Grammy voters tend to nominate a wider variety of albums, often including legends who no longer receive commercial airplay, artists who belong to the broader country genre but aren’t in the mainstream, or artists who don’t necessarily, as Carlson said, “play the game.” (In addition to Cowboy Carter, the only country album to win the all-genre Grammy for album of the year and not receive a CMA nomination is The Chicks’ Taking the Long Way in 2006, which came out after much of the country community disavowed the trio for comments Natalie Maines made about then-President George Bush.)

The CMA declined to comment for this story.

Scott Stem, manager for Scotty McCreery at Triple 8 Management, doesn’t see the disparity as a bad thing. “I don’t think all the awards have to be the same — one artist can win the Grammy, one artist can win the CMA Award, one artist can win the ACM Award, and one artist can win the American Music Award,” he says. “It only widens the pot if more artists and their work are recognized instead of it being the same artists on each show.”

Unlike the CMA and ACM Awards, which draw from primarily the country community and may include industry members not involved in the creative process such as radio executives as voters, the 13,000 Grammy voters come from all genres and must be involved in the creative music-making process. Grammy voters are allowed to vote in up to 10 categories across three fields in addition to the General Field categories, meaning that non-country voters could choose to vote in the country field in order to support Beyoncé. Beyoncé won none of the other Grammys she was nominated for in such genre fields as pop, rap or Americana, possibly indicating that non-country voters were inclined to vote for her in country but not spend their limited votes for her in other areas.

Not everyone felt the win was deserved, with some questioning whether the album belonged in the country category at all after Beyoncé herself said in March, “This ain’t a country album, it’s a Beyoncé album.” But there was no denying its homage to country’s Black roots with the inclusion of Black country pioneer Linda Martell and country’s history with the participation of Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, as well as a nod to its future by including rising Black country artists like Shaboozey, Willie Jones, Brittney Spencer and Reyna Roberts.

Big & Rich’s John Rich posited in a post on X that her win was a result of Sony Music swaying the vote, instead of merit. “Folks are asking me ‘how do music award shows work?’” Rich wrote. “Labels/publishers all have blocks of votes. They make deals with each other ‘you vote for mine, we’ll vote for yours’ type thing. It has ZERO to do with who made the best music, thus, Beyonce with ‘Country album of the year.’ Nice, right? The same thing is true with the CMA’s, ACM’s, Billboard, etc…all work exactly the same. Last night, the Grammy’s [sic] outed themselves in a big way.” [Editor’s note: The Billboard Music Awards are determined solely by Billboard chart performance, not a voting body.]

As the current presidential administration erases diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, many of which came to be following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, some hope Beyoncé’s win will show Nashville that listeners want to hear from more than the white men who dominate country music, especially mainstream country radio.

“Beyoncé will move on and make another killer Beyoncé record in any genre she wants to, while Black and non-white country artists will continue to struggle to be heard and supported,” Carlson says. “Labels and the country infrastructure need to continue to invest in these artists, need to continue to invest in DEI programs, and support programs like Equal Access that are out here doing the work every day to make sure that Beyoncé is only the first Black artist to win a country album of the year Grammy, but certainly not the last.”

Beverly Keel, dean of Middle Tennessee State University’s College of Media and Entertainment, says all eyes will now be on the May 8 ACM Awards, for which first-round voting started Feb. 1 and ends Feb. 18. “I hope Nashville will now fully embrace the project,” Keel says. “This international superstar is taking her wonderful representation of country music around the world, introducing it to people who haven’t listened to the genre before. I hope the next Black female artist doesn’t have to be as successful as Beyoncé to have a big country album. I hope this is the beginning and not an anomaly.”

—Assistance on this story provided by Jessica Nicholson

Music’s biggest night wouldn’t be complete without, well, music — something the 2025 Grammys had in abundance with Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Doechii and more stars delivering buzzy live performances in between the presentation of awards Sunday (Feb. 2).

The show kicked off with Dawes, Brad Paisley, John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Brittany Howard and St. Vincent paying tribute to Los Angeles — where the ceremony streamed live from the city’s Crypto.com Arena — with an all-star performance of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” honoring victims and first responders affected by the disastrous wildfires in Southern California last month. The offering set the tone for the rest of the night, which featured numerous odes to the city and found host Trevor Noah continuously reminding the audience to donate via MusiCares to relief efforts; by the end of the night, viewers had contributed $7 million, the comedian revealed on air.

More artists such as Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga then honored the City of Angels through their performances, with the former singing “Birds of a Feather” on a set made to look like Eaton Canyon in Altadena, and the latter recruiting her “Die With a Smile” collaborator Bruno Mars for an emotionally charged take on The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin.’”

There were also tributes to the artists we lost in the past year — led by Chris Martin, who sang “All My Love” on piano as the names of Liam Payne, Toby Keith and more late stars flashed on screen — and Quincy Jones, who died at 91 in November. In honor of the game-changing producer, Will Smith guided the audience through a string of performances from Cynthia Erivo, Lainey Wilson and Stevie Wonder with Herbie Hancock and Jacob Collier on piano, closing with Janelle Monáe channeling Michael Jackson on “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough.”

Plus, viewers were treated to performances from all eight best new artist nominees, with Carpenter hamming it up for “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” Roan — who later won the category — serving rodeo princess on “Pink Pony Club,” and Benson Boone, Doechii, Teddy Swims, Shaboozey and Raye all singing their biggest hits of 2024 back to back.

Elsewhere in the night, The Weeknd finally ended his beef with the Recording Academy and made his return to the Grammy stage, Shakira got Taylor Swift and more guests up and dancing, and Charli XCX closed the show with a Brat medley of “Von Dutch” and “Guess.”

With so much musical excellence packed into one night, it might be hard to choose, but Billboard still wants to know which artist delivered your favorite performance at this year’s Grammys. Cast your vote below.

During the 2025 Grammys red carpet Sunday (Feb. 2), one reporter got a little caught up in the femininomenon of Chappell Roan while speaking to Babyface.

In a viral clip of the awkward exchange, the “When Can I See You” singer — looking dapper in a jewel-encrusted suit jacket and black shades — is only a few words into his answer to a question while speaking to The Associated Press when the 26-year-old pop star walks by behind him. At that point, one of the AP’s reporters calls out to get Roan’s attention while Babyface is still speaking, prompting the R&B icon to stop in the middle of what he’s saying and ask, “You guys wanna do that?”

“Go do that,” Babyface adds, relinquishing his microphone as the “Hot to Go!” singer — appearing not to have heard the interaction — walks over.

Shortly afterward, AP posted an apology on X. “We are deeply sorry for cutting our interview with Babyface short on our YouTube livestream of the Grammys red carpet,” the news agency wrote in its statement. “We have apologized to him through his representative and to our viewers on the livestream.”

Billboard has reached out to Babyface’s rep for comment.

As evidenced by the commotion on the carpet, Roan was one of the buzziest guests at the 2025 ceremony. The star walked in with six nominations total, including for song, record and album of the year for “Good Luck, Babe!” and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, respectively. Though she didn’t take home any of those Big 3 awards — Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” won both song categories while Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter scored AOTY — the Missouri native did win best new artist.

And during her speech, she boldly challenged record labels to take better care of their artists, especially signees. “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and healthcare, especially for developing artists,” Roan said while accepting best new artist. “Labels, we got you — but do you got us?”

Elsewhere in the night, the star performed her Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit “Pink Pony Club,” taking the stage atop a giant pink horse prop while surrounded by dancers in clown makeup.

But before the ceremony even started, AP’s Krysta Fauria also issued a personal apology to Babyface before the site’s red-carpet coverage ended. “I wanted to say that I’m really sorry about interrupting Babyface earlier,” she said in a clip from the broadcast. “I’m a big Babyface fan — as are we all — and so I just wanted to say that I really apologize.”