State Champ Radio Country
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The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 dated Feb. 15, we look at the biggest threats to capture the No. 1 spot after Travis Scott’s “4×4” debuted atop the listing this week.
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Morgan Wallen, “I’m the Problem” (Mercury/Big Loud/Republic): Perhaps the most consistent artist in the upper stretches of the Billboard charts the past two years has been Morgan Wallen, who has racked up three Hot 100 No. 1s since 2023 (with his own “Last Night” and “Love Somebody” and the Post Malone-led “I Had Some Help”) and another five top 10 hits. On Friday (Jan. 31), he returned with the new single “I’m the Problem,” a bitter song about a toxic relationship that will serve as the lead single and title track for his upcoming fourth album, his first since 2023’s behemoth One Thing at a Time (still in the Billboard 200’s top five nearly two years later).
Unsurprisingly, “Problem” is off to a strong start on streaming, topping both the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and the real-time Apple Music chart after its Friday release. The song has started to slide on both listings perhaps a little quicker than expected, with it being replaced by SZA’s Kendrick Lamar-featuring “30 for 30” atop the Apple Music chart and falling all the way out of the top 10 already on the Spotify listing. But it remains in the top 10 on iTunes even after getting passed by a number of Grammy-boosted songs, and it’s off to a hot start at country radio, with over eight million airplay impressions in its first four days of tracking (through Feb. 3), according to Luminate.
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“Problem” might not quite have the streaming start to be on the inside track for a No. 1 debut, but it should at least be another top 10 hit for the dominant country superstar.
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile” (Streamline/Interscope/Atlantic/ICLG): Despite Lady Gaga being present and performing at the two most high-profile multi-artist gigs of 2025 so far – Thursday’s FireAid concert at the Intuit Dome, where she closed out the multi-hour fundraising event, and Sunday’s Grammys, where she actually performed with Bruno Mars – she did not play her and Mars’ four-week No. 1 at either show. (Gaga and Bruno instead covered The Mamas and the Papas’ ‘60s classic “California Dreamin’” at Music’s Biggest Night.) Nevertheless, the song could get a bump from its win for best pop duo/group performance, and for Gaga’s headline-capturing acceptance speech standing up for the trans community.
In any event, “Die With a Smile” remains a monster on streaming, sticking in the top 10 on Apple Music and climbing back to No. 1 on Spotify’s Daily Songs Top USA chart. It also continues to threaten the reign of Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” on radio, though that 27-week Radio Songs No. 1 might not give up that spot so easily. Regardless, its continued strong showing across streaming, sales and radio, it should be a pretty strong contender to return to No. 1 for a fifth frame next week.
The Weeknd, “Cry for Me” & “Timeless” (w/ Playboi Carti) (XO/Republic): The Weeknd had a pretty enormous weekend, appropriately, as he both released his new album Hurry Up Tomorrow on Friday and then made a surprise return to the Grammys stage on Sunday after essentially boycotting the awards for four years after his After Hours blockbuster was shockingly ignored by the Recording Academy in 2021. The two songs he performed at the Grammys are also the two leading early performers from Tomorrow: “Timeless,” the Playboi Carti teamup that has already reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, and “Cry for Me,” a newly released early-album highlight.
Both songs should be a factor in the top 10 race next week. “Cry for Me” has the edge on Apple Music, while “Timeless” leads on Spotify – and “Timeless” is obviously ahead on radio, having a months-long head start building airplay (though “Cry for Me” should debut on Pop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay this week). Neither is likely to be No. 1 next week, but The Weeknd always has tricks up his sleeve to give his hits a little extra boot, so they can’t be totally counted out in the weeks to come.
Travis Scott, “4×4” (Cactus Jack/Epic): The current No. 1 song on the Hot 100 is likely to have a considerable drop in week two, as the gargantuan first-week sales number the song posted (167,000) inevitably recedes, and the streaming numbers continue to slide. (The song is already out of the top 50 on both Spotify and Apple Music.) Nonetheless, Travis Scott‘s “4×4” won’t disappear completely, and has started to make gains on radio, with the song expected to jump on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in its second week, and possibly even make the top 20 on Rhythmic Airplay.
Doechii, “Denial Is a River” (Top Dawg/Capitol/ICLG): It won’t be a top 10 contender just yet, but the breakout hit from Doechii’s now-Grammy-winning mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal (which she performed, along with “Catfish”) should be the biggest beneficiary from her post-Grammy-night bump in streams and sales — and had already started to make pretty big waves on the charts, climbing to No. 55 on the Hot 100 this week. Radio is starting to kick in for the track as well, with “Denial” also a threat to make the top 20 on Rhythmic Airplay while shooting up Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay.
One of the many benefits of the internet is one that 20-somethings likely take for granted: immediate access to song lyrics.
Prior to the advent of Google and Safari, consumers who wanted confirmation of a song’s words generally needed to buy the album – and hope that it contained the lyrics – or pick up the sheet music. A few publications, such as Country Song Roundup or The Tennessean, regularly printed the text to hit songs, but other than that, fans were left to debate if they were hearing things right.
Still, the lyric sites aren’t always spot-on. Songwriters regularly laugh about the misprints of their material, which get passed from site to site, correctly or not.
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One obvious example comes with the new Parmalee single, “Cowgirl,” where lyric sites include this verse-one line: “Drivin’ a Range, but now I wanna giddy hard.”
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Clearly wrong, right? Wrong, it’s right!
“It’s like, ‘giddy up hard,’ man,” says Parmalee lead singer Matt Thomas. “You want to get it, get with it, you know? Like, ‘giddy hard.’ It’s one of those things where it doesn’t make any sense, but it kind of does, if you think about it.”
The thing that stands out most, though, about “Cowgirl” is a hard, syncopated backbeat. It feels like a cousin to the Bo Diddley groove or, as Thomas suggests, the cheerleader rhythms of the 1982 Mickey Basil pop hit “Mickey.” That alone should have programmers paying attention: sports-based riffs formed the foundation of Shania Twain’s “Any Man Of Mine” and “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”
Despite the Western motif of the “Cowgirl” title, the song’s drumbeat is imported from the United Kingdom, where four songwriters – James Daniel Lewis, Peter David Newman, Robbie Jay and Thomas Frank Ridley Horsley – fashioned the bulk of it before shipping it off to 33 Creative co-owner Tina Crawford, who found it intriguing. She shared the programmed demo with her co-owner, writer-producer David Fanning (“Take My Name,” “Tennessee Orange”), who in turn brought it to Thomas. And they played it for Parmalee on the band’s bus.
“I don’t think there was a bridge in there, but for the most part, it was pretty much there,” recalls the band’s bassist, Barry Knox. “It was a solid, solid idea.”
The group’s other members, drummer Scott Thomas and guitarist Josh McSwain, agreed. Parmalee’s first single, 2012’s “Musta Had a Good Time,” had set expectations for a career built on hard-hitting uptempos, but the group’s biggest successes have leaned toward midtempos and ballads. That includes their last four singles, three of which – the Blanco Brown collaboration “Just the Way,” “Take My Name” and “Gonna Love You” – reached No. 1 on Country Airplay. Matt and Fanning thought the time was right for a song that grooved like “Cowgirl,” if they could fit it to Parmalee.
“We needed something unique and fresh,” Fanning says. “Coming from the U.K. and everything, they’re trying to write towards country music and get into this genre. And they just send us something that we really were like, ‘Hey, that sounds fresh. How do we make this Parmalee?’”
Batting it around for much of May, they changed a few lyrics, made some melodic tweaks and wrote a bridge to generate a change of pace. “We needed something catchy, something fun in there,” Matt says. “We needed something to sing that’s going to be abstract, kind of like the ‘giddy hard’ thing, and we came up with the ‘24-karat palomino.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, man – palomino, golden horse. That’s it.’ Like, everybody’s yell that during the break.”
Matt brought in the “giddy hard” thing, and all told, the song struck a balance between the abstractions and more standard images from mainstream country. “It’s got a lot of clichés in it, too,” Fanning notes. “You’re talking about [trucks] and Levi’s and Bud Light, all the things that are country. But that’s the thing about country music. That stuff never does get old. It’s just, how are you gonna say it differently?”
Halie Welch, the “Hawk Tuah girl,” was recording at the studio across the hall when Fanning produced “Cowgirl” at Nashville’s Sound Stage in early July, building on top of the percussive loop from the original demo, for which Lewis received a co-producing credit. Fanning assembled a small studio band, better enabling them to get through all five of the day’s songs speedily. Parmalee, though, watched from the control room to guide the studio players to performances that captured some of the nuances of the band.
“We’ve been playing together for 25 years, so we call it the Parmalee groove,” Knox says. “It’s more of a laidback kick drum groove, as opposed to a heavy forward[-leaning] punk kick drum. There’s a little more space in the Parmalee groove.”
The band would overdub instrumental parts later to get more of the band’s imprint on the recording, around the time that Matt threw down the final vocal, working the upper part of his register. Knox and McSwain joined him for an intense day of harmonies intended to enhance the light nature of “Cowgirl.”
“We were working in the afternoon, and I was like, ‘Alright, this is the song. We got to have a party,’” Matt recalls. “The idea was to go down to the strip club and have some tequilas, spend a couple hours in there, and then come back to the studio. But that didn’t happen.”
“Plan A didn’t quite work out, but plan B was we were still gonna have a little bit of tequila,” Knox says.The guys chased down harmonies from multiple spots in the studio, creating perhaps 30 or more total voices to fashion a party atmosphere.
“You’re singing eight feet from the mic, two feet from the mic, right on the mic, just going all around the room to try to create that crowdy kind of effect,” Fanning says. And yet, listeners paying close attention will discern an additional voice on the final chorus, a high-harmony enhancement that Matt wasn’t sure he could do until he nailed it.
Parmalee considered several different tracks as the next single, though “Cowgirl” got the nod once Knox broke the ice. “Barry walked on the bus one night,” Matt remembers, “and he’s like, ‘What are we doing? What are we doing? Why are we listening to any of these other songs to be the first single? We’re crazy if we don’t go with “Cowgirl.” ’
As it turned out, the rest of the band agreed. Stoney Creek released “Cowgirl” to country radio via PlayMPE on Jan. 8. It ranks No. 50 on the Country Airplay chart dated Feb. 8 in its fourth week on the list.
Meanwhile, the odd lyric could prove to be one of its most beneficial traits.
“It’ll probably be the one word in the song that people hear and have no idea what it is, and it’s gonna make them Google it,” Knox says. “So I’m like, ‘Put it in there. I’m in.’ That’s kind of our go-to word now. Like, ‘Hey, man, we gonna giddy hard tonight.’”
Kacey Musgraves is stopping false rumors in their tracks regarding her reaction to Beyoncé‘s best country album win at the 2025 Grammys. The “Rainbow” singer and Bey were two of several artists nominated for best country album at the awards show Sunday, for Deeper Well and Cowboy Carter, respectively. Ultimately, the prize went to the […]
When Morgan Wallen announced his upcoming I’m The Problem Tour, Miranda Lambert was listed among the openers. Lambert, the most-awarded artist in ACM Awards history, is set to open 11 shows on the trek — and some fans are disappointed to see Lambert in an opening slot on the tour.
On Tuesday (Feb. 4), Lambert shared a Instagram video reel of herself reading some of the “mean tweets” — or rather, comments — that came with the tour announcement. “I appreciate that y’all aren’t afraid to hold back,” she wrote in video’s caption
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Some of the less-than-thrilled statements included, “Hmmm, team Miranda forever, but this comes as a shock,” “I was the biggest Miranda fan,” and “This ain’t it, sis.” Another comment read, “I’m so disappointed in both of you. May God forgive you both,” drawing a laugh from Lambert, who said jokingly, “We’re really doing bad on this tour, Morgan.”
Other commenters expressed surprise that Lambert — who has been an established headliner in her own right for many years — is opening a show for Wallen. “You are not a side dish–you are a main course,” read one.
Another commenter showed disappointment that Lambert isn’t playing the two Texas shows on the tour, Wallen’s pair of concerts set for Houston on June 20-21. “WTF, I don’t see Texas on here,” the commenter wrote, to which Lambert responded with a nod, saying, “I know, that sucks. I’m not on the Texas shows.”
“So there we go. Thanks guys for the support. Appreciate that,” Lambert said, taking the comments in stride.
Wallen’s I’m the Problem Tour launches June 20 and runs through Sept. 13. Other openers set to appear throughout the tour include Koe Wetzel, Corey Kent, Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Brooks & Dunn, Thomas Rhett and Anne Wilson.
The tour takes its namesake from Wallen’s current song and his upcoming fourth studio album. That project will follow his album One Thing at a Time, which stayed atop the Billboard 200 albums chart for 19 non-consecutive weeks and garnered six Country Airplay chart No. 1 singles.
Lambert released her most recent album, Postcards From Texas, in 2024 through a partnership with Republic Records and Big Loud. The album’s lead single, “Wranglers,” released in May 2024.
Watch Lambert’s video reaction below:
Jelly Roll is stepping into a new Jelly role! The Grammy-nominated country superstar is set to appear on the 23rd season of American Idol, as the show’s first-ever “artist in residence,” according to Variety. Per the publication, Jelly will first appear on the season during the “Hollywood Week” episodes and continue to become “a permanent […]
Beyoncé’s long-awaited album of the year victory at the 2025 Grammy Awards for Cowboy Carter has garnered plenty of praise across the music industry, but some weren’t as happy to see Queen Bey rack up the award wins, and The View‘s Whoopi Goldberg isn’t letting it slide.
The actress had some words to share after Raymond Arroyo joined Laura Ingraham’s The Ingraham Angle on Fox News on Monday (Feb. 3), following Bey’s history-making night the evening before, and he slammed the Recording Academy for Beyoncé’s country dominance while she had more wins than artists such as Dolly Parton.
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“The country artists are not really happy about this,” Arroyo said. “I’m gonna put this in some context Laura: Dolly Parton has 10 Grammys. Frank Sinatra had 11 Grammys. Beyoncé has 35. How is that possibly commensurate with that talent? I mean come on.”
He continued to tell the host: “What people don’t know about the Grammys is everybody votes in every genre. You can vote in up to 20 genres. So basically Lady Gaga’s cat sitter votes for, you know, best reggae and best country album. So that’s why you get this ridiculous outcome that has nothing to do with the country audience or the country musicians.”
Oscar winner Goldberg came to Bey’s defense the next day, scolding the pundit on the Tuesday (Feb. 4) episode of The View.
“Sir, are you aware that you have to be in the music industry to be a Grammy voter? So, the cat sitter can’t just vote,” she fired back. “Are you aware that when the Grammys began in 1959, there were only 28 categories — now there are 94?”
Goldberg added: “The year that Frank Sinatra got six nominations despite having two No. 1 albums, he only won one Grammy that night for his album cover — not even for his singing, for the album cover. Listen, man. You can’t do that. She earned it.”
Arroyo is wrong on some other points. Sinatra won nine competitive Grammys, not 11. Voters cannot vote “in up to 20 genres.” In addition to the six General Field categories, voters can vote in no more than 10 categories spread across no more than three fields.
Beyoncé collected another three wins at the 2025 Grammy Awards, including her first album of the year victory for Cowboy Carter to bring her grand total to 35 Grammys. She also took home victories for best country album and best country/group performance for “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus.
Watch Whoopi Goldberg’s slam the conservative pundit on The View below.
Sabrina Carpenter is extending her Short n’ Sweet era, and she’s bringing one of her biggest heroes along for the ride. On Tuesday (Feb. 4) — two days after winning her first-ever Grammys — the pop star announced that she’s dropping a deluxe edition of her breakthrough album featuring none other than Dolly Parton on […]
Fans tuning in to the Super Bowl this weekend will hear a familiar voice, as Shania Twain lends her voice to an all-out “foam party” in the new Coffee Mate Cold Foam Creamer ad, which will air during the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, when the Philadelphia Eagles face off against the Kansas City Chiefs at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
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The five-time Grammy winner is the voice behind the ad’s uptempo pop song “Gimme Cold Foam,” which serves as a love letter to coffee, punctuated by the lines “Gimme cold foam! Gimme cold foam!/ I’m a dancing tongue, and I like the taste of cold foam.” The ad, in which Twain voices a tongue that not only sings and dances, but even does flips, was created by Wieden+Kennedy New York and directed by Dan Streit.
“The song is just so catchy,” Twain tells Billboard of “Gimme Cold Foam.” “It is just very danceable and fun and it just sticks in your brain. It is one of those catchy songs, so I just think it’s a really great little bop.”
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Twain laid down her vocals for the track in a hotel room in Mexico, as she was taking part in Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna Weekend. “It was so fun. I really get into character singing it, which made it a blast,” Twain recalls of recording the song.
Billboard caught up with Twain to discuss her role in the upcoming Coffee Mate Cold Foam Creamer Super Bowl ad, her hopes for the Super Bowl, and who she would love to see sing the national anthem.
Had you seen the footage for the commercial by the time you recorded the song?
No, I heard the music before I saw the video, which I think was a good idea because I was just attracted to the catchiness of the song. It was this cool, boppy tune and then watching the video, I just laughed. It was cheerful, quirky, funny–and I’m a dancing tongue, man!
What is your favorite coffee?
I’m one of these seasonal coffee people where in the cooler weather I want a hot coffee and in the summer I want a cold brew. And talking about this cold foam, for me, hot coffee, black with cold foam on top and then spoon up the rest. Coffee with the cold foam is more like an ice cream dessert.
You performed at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2003. What do you recall about the performance?
It was a very hectic environment, which I wasn’t expecting, but it wasn’t just your normal, “Okay, you’re on in five minutes.” There was so much rehearsal and a lot of the rehearsal was just getting from the backstage to across the field to the stage and all the security involved and all of this convoy of equipment and everything. It was a huge production and that just built the hype up for me so much more. So it felt like a very epic moment.
Speaking of the Super Bowl, who are you rooting for this year?
I’m not really rooting one way or the other. I really hope it’s a good, strong game, just so that makes it a very exciting game for everyone. I think this game has more anticipation than others because of Taylor [Swift]’s association with the [Kansas City] Chiefs. And of course, I don’t want my friend to go home disappointed. I want her to be happy and feel that joy.
Who would you love to see either sing the national anthem or do the halftime show at the Super Bowl?
I want to see Brandi Carlile. I don’t think she’s ever done the national anthem. It would be the ultimate.
See the Coffee Mate Cold Foam Creamer ad below:
Miley Cyrus won her third career Grammy at the awards ceremony on Sunday night (Feb. 2), and the superstar took to Instagram to celebrate. “Last night at the @recordingacademy,” she wrote alongside a series of photos wearing custom black Alaïa dresses. “Having your name called is an honor that deserves to be celebrated. Just remember […]
When Captain Sheila Kelliher Berkoh announced Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter as the winner of album of the year at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards (Feb. 2), the rapturous standing ovation that swept across Crypto.com Arena seemed to say one thing: Finally.
After five previous bids over the past decade and a half, Beyoncé finally took home album of the year for the second history-making entry in her still-unfurling trilogy that commenced with 2022’s Grammy-winning Renaissance. As Queen Bey embraced her eldest daughter, Blue Ivy Carter (already a Grammy winner in her own right), and began to make her way to the stage, the room rejoiced. Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish wept, Cynthia Erivo leapt up and down, Taylor Swift shared a toast with Jay-Z, Olivia Rodrigo cheered and GloRilla screamed till she damn near couldn’t anymore. At long last, the First Lady of Music – as dubbed by one Clive Davis – had finally won the industry’s most coveted prize.
With her victory, Beyoncé not only extended her lead as the most-awarded artist in Grammy history (35 wins), but she also joined Natalie Cole (Unforgettable With Love, 1992), Whitney Houston (The Bodyguard, 1994) and Lauryn Hill (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, 1999) as just the fourth Black woman to ever win album of the year. It’s that nugget of history, coupled with her litany of egregious General Field snubs that made this moment such a sweet one to witness.
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But let’s be careful not to let “overdue” narratives completely obfuscate the artistic merit of Cowboy Carter. Leading up to last night’s ceremony, many publications – including Billboard – predicted that Cowboy Carter would take home top honors. Across social media and some of those pieces, narrative started to build that a Cowboy Carter victory would be like Leonardo DiCaprio winning for The Revenant or Martin Scorsese winning for The Departed – or like Beck winning for Morning Phase in 2015, the year of Bey’s first major album of the year loss. After being passed over for what many consider to be their best efforts, acclaimed artists who consistently produce the best work in their respective industries finally earn the highest honors in their field. In the same way that DiCaprio is an actor’s actor and Scorsese is a director’s director, Beyoncé is an artist’s artist. That much was clear when the 2023 Grammys turned into a Bey pseudo-meet-and-greet, and the room’s ecstatic reaction to her victory last night was another reminder. As far as many are concerned, Cowboy Carter’s win is equivalent to a lifetime achievement award; a mea culpa of sorts for snubs of years past.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that framing, but it does belie the fact that Cowboy Carter would have deserved to win whether it was Bey’s first album of the year nod or her tenth. Less than two years after flipping the dance-pop world on its head with Renaissance, a record that illuminated the Black queer roots of dance music and culture, Beyoncé strutted into yet another new genre and made it completely her own, while venerating some of its most respected (and overlooked) pioneers.
She opened the album with “Ameriican Requiem,” a Buffalo Springfield-nodding tour de force that served as a musical funeral for not just the most limiting visions of America, but also the overwhelmingly white country music establishment that unfairly made themselves the gatekeepers of who can lay claim to country music, aesthetics and identity. Over the 26 subsequent tracks, she assumed and illustrated different Western motifs and characters (the sheriff, the damsel in distress, the outlaw, etc.), ending with “Amen,” an anthem of hope for a new, limitless vision of America that interpolates the album opener.
Cowboy Carter reaped a whopping 11 nominations across several different genres, a point she emphasized with the brilliant three-track run of “Jolene,” “Daughter” and “Spaghettii.” With her reimagining of Dolly Parton’s classic, Beyoncé turned the country icon’s desperation into a fierce understanding of self-worth that simultaneously aligned her existing musical and lyrical brand with Parton’s track, while also serving as a callback to the “Becky” character that haunted 2016’s Lemonade, which infamously lost album of the year to Adele’s chart-conquering 25. “Jolene” gives way to “Daughter,” a positively stunning take on the country murder ballad that finds Beyoncé ripping through an operatic rendition of “Caro Mi Ben” in the original Italian before recruiting Linda Martell, the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry, and Shaboozey, the man who would come to be the voice behind the longest-running solo Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single in history (“A Bar Song”), for “Spaghettii.” Nominated for best melodic rap performance last night, “Spaghettii” mines the cross-cultural history of spaghetti westerns to create a folk-inflected trap heater assisted by a Brazilian funk sample (O Mandrake’s “Aquecimento das Danadas”). And that’s just the first half of the LP!
There’s also “Alliigator Tears,” on which Bey is seemingly singing directly to the Recording Academy. “You say move a mountain/ And I’ll throw on my boots/ You say stop the river from runnin’/ I’ll build a dam or two/ You say change religions/ Now, I spend Sundays with you/ Somethin’ ’bout those tears of yours/ How does it feel to be adored?” she posits in the chorus. Of course, there’s also the rising contemporary Black country talent she highlighted across the album (Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Willie Jones, Reyna Roberts and Tiera Kennedy), and let’s not forget her Jersey club flip of Patsy Cline’s seminal “I Fall to Pieces” either. We don’t even have to get into the historic chart achievements of the era or the cultural impact it had across fashion and business – Cowboy Carter is worthy enough based solely on its 27 gorgeous songs.
Not a single one of the other nominees for album of the year boasts the archival ambition, depth of research, courage, experimentation, soul and sheer scope of Cowboy Carter. The album is closer to a master’s thesis than a standard pop album, but it’s also relentlessly fun. Whether she’s going full Western camp on “Tyrant,” crafting a friendship anthem for the ages alongside Miley Cyrus on “II Most Wanted” or blazing through a crash course in rock ‘n’ roll history on “Ya Ya,” Cowboy Carter is a blast. The record received some flak for its length and people considering it a “chore” to sit through because of how heady it can get at certain points; Cowboy Carter, in some circles, became something to be respected, but not enjoyed. In reality, Beyoncé crafted the album with so much verve that there really isn’t a way for Cowboy Carter to not be the ultimate hoedown. Is it Beyoncé’s best album? Depending on the day, maybe. Is it frustrating that the Recording Academy couldn’t reward her for making paradigm-shifting music in her home genre of R&B? Unequivocally. But none of that makes Cowboy Carter underserving of its victory in the 2025 album of the year race.
There’s a reason the album collected two other wins last night, just like how The Departed and The Revenant won additional Oscars outside of Scorsese and DiCaprio. Their victories may have been delayed, but they still triumphed for excellent and deserving work. Pity wins those were not. Yes, this win is a vindication of her past losses, a tribute to her towering career, and a nod to the Black women before her who were denied time and time again, but above all, it’s a win for Cowboy Carter specifically – and that’s the most important takeaway from last night.
