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The star has had a famously complicated but ultimately historic run with the Recording Academy.
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On Friday morning (Nov. 8), the Recording Academy unveiled their nominations for the 2025 Grammys — and Shaboozey, one of 2024’s biggest breakout stars, snagged five nods to add to his record-breaking year.
Shaboozey’s five nominations are across several genre fields, including three nods (best country song, best country solo performance and song of the year) for “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” his historic, 16-week Billboard Hot 100-topping smash. The Virginia-bred star also earned a nod for best new artist, while “Spaghettii,” his genre-fusing collaboration with Beyoncé and Linda Martell, reaped a bid for best melodic rap performance. A David Guetta-helmed remix of “A Bar Song” also received a nomination for best remixed recording, though that category only honors the remixer, not the artist behind the original track.
Over the course of 2024, Shaboozey has soared to staggering heights with his Americana-steeped, hip-hop-infused take on outlaw country. With “A Bar Song,” he became the first Black male artist to top the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts at the same time. “A Bar Song,” which cheekily interpolates J-Kwon‘s 2004 single “Tipsy,” has spent a whopping 16 weeks at the Hot 100’s apex, just three weeks shy of tying Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus‘ “Old Town Road” as the longest-running Hot 100 chart-topper of all time. In addition to “A Bar Song,” Shaboozey also earned two 2024 Hot 100 hits alongside Beyoncé: “Spaghettii” (No. 31, with Linda Martell) and “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’” (No. 61). Early in its run, “A Bar Song” usurped Queen Bey’s “Texas Hold ’Em” atop Hot Country Songs, making the collaborators the first Black artists to earn back-to-back No. 1s in the chart’s nearly 70-year history.
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With a boatload of Grammy nominations to cap off a life-changing year, Shaboozey — who’s currently in Lexington, Ky., assisting Jelly Roll on his Beautifully Broken tour — took a few minutes to speak with Billboard about his latest honors, how he’s celebrating and how this all impacts his approach to making music going forward.
Where were you when you first saw the nominations?
I was on the tour bus. I’m on the road with Jelly Roll right now. I was supposed to be playing basketball with him, but I think he was sleeping on another bus.
Who did you call first?
I probably FaceTimed Mike Trotter Jr. [from The War and Treaty] because he texted me first. He was congratulating me as a friend and mentor, he’s always been the best. Then I called my manager. I tried to call Jelly, but, like I said, I think he was sleeping. Then I called my mom and my brother. And then Abas [Pauti], my other manager. And then Teddy Swims called me! He was crying. I feel like he definitely got snubbed [for more nominations]. He’s just got one of the greatest voices, such a classic, timeless voice. Honestly, if he got nominated [more], it would’ve been the “Teddy Swims Appreciation Show”! [Laughs].
What do you normally do to celebrate with family and friends?
The last time I actually went to my house was probably in March, a couple of days before Cowboy Carter came out. It’s funny because I was at Tommy Richman’s birthday party. The [Cowboy Carter] announcement hadn’t even come out and I was just hanging. I haven’t really gotten the opportunity to slow down and celebrate. My mom has a birthday coming up early next year, so we’ll probably do a big birthday party for her.
Were there any surprises for you looking at the nominations?
I mean, The Beatles AI song. I was like, “OK… We’re doing this?” [Laughs] I felt like [record of the year] would have been a cool one to grab, but I’m super grateful for the six I did get. And that’s not even counting the ones we kind of have our name attached to, like Beyoncé’s [Cowboy Carter] record. It’s a big year for both of us, honestly.
You’re nominated across the general field, country and rap – what does it mean to see your name and work welcomed across genre lines?
It’s bittersweet for sure. There’s a tremendous amount of talent in the country space and there are so many well-written songs that I felt also deserved that look. Country music is not yearning for talent. The beautiful thing about country music — especially some of the people who have been doing it for such a long time – is that so many people could have been out in that category. I heard a song by Sam Barber and Avery Anna that’s so beautiful, Zach Bryan put out an amazing record, Zach Top too. I wish there was a way to showcase everybody, but that’s the nature of awards shows.
You and Beyoncé are now one step closer to potentially being the fifth and sixth Black artists to win a country Grammy. How do you begin to wrap your head around that?
It’s insane, especially to be doing it with someone like Beyoncé who’s such a legacy artist. It feels like I’m on the right track to do the same. I can finally cross this off my bucket list. I can say that I’m Grammy-nominated for the rest of my life. I really believe this is only the beginning.
I’ve learned so much just from doing the tour and doing these shows. Now, with more resources from the label, I feel like I can really get out there and start making music without pressure. A lot of people work to get a No. 1 song. Being able to knock that out at this point in my career, I can start focusing on making the music that really matters to me. Not to say the music I have done doesn’t matter, but I can really get into my artist bag. It’s gonna be really fun.
As you dig deeper into that “artist bag,” what does that look like for you?
Being able to collaborate more, the phone book just gets a little bigger as far as writers, producers and session players you can work with. And the time you can take. My whole project was mostly recorded in producers’ rooms. Some of it was done in Nashville, but most of it was done in my producer’s house in Van Nuys [California] – not the most scenic country landscape! Because of budget restrictions, we didn’t want to make something that would kill our pockets. Now, I have the opportunity to be like, “Do I want to go out to Montana for a couple of weeks? Or Nashville? Or Electric Lady?” Those things seem like more of a possibility, whereas before they were kind of just a dream or afterthought.
Have you gotten a chance to speak with your “Tipsy” co-writers and co-producers?
I talk to them every day. Sean Cook, one of my new producers, did most of the songs on my last project, Cowboys Live Forever, and Nevin [Sastry] did most of the stuff on the one before that, Lady Wrangler. They were the two producers on “A Bar Song,” so it was cool that I was able to connect one of my earliest friends with one of my recent collaborators and they hit it off so well. We all got this together. For them both to believe in me and see past the immediate gain and exposure and remain loyal and put in hours – and I’m really particular, so I be over-tweaking. For me, [I continue working on] albums for a while after they’re supposed to be turned in. Sometimes, producers can suffer from producer fatigue – but in those moments, we made “A Bar Song.”
I hope people learn from that. Don’t stop being creative, don’t stop believing in your ideas, and have people around you who are going to help and encourage you to explore your ideas and not kill them.
“A Bar Song” is two weeks away from tying the all-time record for most weeks atop the Hot 100. Are you guys gunning for it or just letting the song do what it does?
This is kind of crazy how much the song carried on its own. We don’t even do anything and it’s like, “Hey, you’re aiming for a 17th week now!” [Laughs] Some people will do a couple of different remixes or they’ll do the instrumental and the a cappella and all these different versions. We reached out to a lot of people trying to do a remix early on, but we couldn’t find something that made sense. For “A Bar Song” to still be doing what it’s doing is insane.
Other than “A Bar Song,” what song would you most want to perform at the Grammy telecast?
There’s the “Good News” record we’ve been teasing, that would be a cool one to perform at the Grammys – especially if it performs the way we expect it to and if it really resonates with people. But everybody wants to get tipsy right now! I got asked to come out at the World Series, and I had just did the Boston Celtics. We’re doing CMAs too. We’ve been telling people that we want to showcase and highlight other songs as well, and everyone’s been very receptive.
What do these Grammy nominations mean to the Shaboozey who first moved out to LA a decade ago to pursue music?
It’s just amazing. A dream come true. The Grammys are the pinnacle of music. It’s something you watch from the outside. There are songs about the Grammys, people talk about them all the time. I’m pretty sure I’ve been mentioning going to the Grammys or winning a Grammy since I was 17 years old. To now have another thing ticked off my bucket list is a blessing. The most exciting part about all this is being able to listen to your music and be like, “Damn, I’m not capping anymore. I really got that Grammy that I talked about in that song I made in 2014!” Manifestation, man. Now I can really talk my sh–!
It’s cool to see that there’s still hope out there for new artists. A lot of the nominated artists, we see those names every year. It’s cool to have new names there. I want to make sure this isn’t the last time my name is there.
How many shots are you taking to celebrate these nominations?
Oh man, we’ll see! When I see Jelly Roll tonight, it’s gonna be all love. We’ll get out there and have a great time. I be taking shots every day now, this whole tour has been one big party.
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Shaboozey has a lot of reasons to dance on Friday (Nov. 8), with the 29-year-old breakout country star nabbing five nominations for the 2025 Grammys.
In addition to best new artist and best melodic rap performance for his “Spaghettii” duet with Beyoncé, Shaboozey’s smash hit single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was recognized for best country solo performance, best country song and, last but not least, song of the year. When his name was announced in the latter category Friday, the initially nervous-looking singer — as captured by his guitarist Stephen Musselman and reposted by Shaboozey on Instagram Stories — let out a huge cheer and jumped up from his seat, bursting with joy.
“Let’s go!!!!” he cheered while doing a happy dance as his friends applauded.
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Shaboozey also tweeted Friday, “GRAMMY NOMINATED BOOZEY!!!!!!!! I LOVE Y’ALL, THANK YOU @RecordingAcad !!!!” In another post on X, he simply wrote, “We did it!!!!”
The Virginia native’s nods are well-earned. After his star skyrocketed following Bey’s Cowboy Carter — for which he lent his talents to two tracks — Shaboozey quickly leveraged the opportunity into lasting success with “A Bar Song,” which has spent 16 weeks (so far) at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Earlier this week, the track tied for the second-longest reign in the chart’s history, bested only by Lil Nas X’s 19-week rule with “Old Town Road.”
“That’s the homie,” Shaboozey said of Lil Nas in his October Billboard cover story. “We haven’t had deep conversations, but I can tell what’s happening to me now is probably very similar to what he experienced.”
Shaboozey is just one of many artists who received good news Friday, with Beyoncé leading the way with 11 nominations, followed by Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone with seven nods apiece and Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift with six each. Shaboozey shares the best new artist category with Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Benson Boone, Doechii, Khruangbin, Raye and Teddy Swims.
The 2025 Grammys will take place Sunday, Feb. 2. See Shaboozey’s tweets below.
In 2024, pop artists made their love for country music known, and, today, Grammy voters made their love known for those efforts.
Pop and R&B stars dominated the country Grammy nominations, including Beyoncé, who was the only artist to receive a nod in all four country categories. (Bey is the leading artist across the board with a record 11 total nominations for her country-influenced Cowboy Carter album.)
Post Malone also earned two country nominations, while Noah Kahan received one. Genre-blending Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (“Tipsy”) became the first song to go top 10 (and ultimately top three) on all four of Billboard radio airplay charts — Country Airplay, Pop Airplay, Rhythmic Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay — received two.
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Even though country radio ignores her (and vice versa), country voters remain understandably infatuated with Kacey Musgraves — who earned three nominations, including for country album, solo performance and song. Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen and Chris Stapleton are the only artists who primarily consider themselves country (and are embraced by country radio) to receive more than one country nomination.
It’s worth noting that this is the first time that two Black artists have been nominated in the best country solo country performance category since its formation in 2012 (it combined the previous genre-designated solo performances). In 2021, Mickey Guyton was the first Black artist nominated in the category. Other than Beyoncé and Shaboozey, voters in the country categories ignored a number of non-crossover Black artists who released lauded music this year, including Brittney Spencer, Guyton and Kane Brown.
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If it weren’t for Beyoncé and Shaboozey, country music would have been mostly locked out of the main four categories: album, record and song of the year and best new artist. Beyoncé is represented in album, record and song of the year, while Shaboozey is nominated for best new artist and song of the year.
This is an ongoing issue with the Grammy nominations and one that the Academy is working on by trying to up votership in the country community — but the numbers are just very rarely in country music’s favor to land slots in the all-genre categories.
For the last 10 years, and not including today’s nominations, only four country artists have received album of the year nominations (and that’s including more Americana-leaning artists, like Sturgill Simpson and Brandi Carlile) and there has only been one winner: Musgraves for Golden Hour in 2018. Only two country songs have received nominations for song of the year, and none for record of the year. Best new artist has fared the best, with eight artists nomination over the past decade, but no winners (the last country winner was Zac Brown Band in 2010). Song of the year goes to the songwriters, so the shutout remains all the more baffling — since for the past two years, two predominantly country songwriters have received two of the five slots in the songwriter of the year, non-classical, category. Shout out to Jessi Alexander and Jessie Jo Dillon.
The relative shut-out in the big four categories remains for 2025, even while country enjoys a surge in popularity and dominates the Hot 100, with such titles as Post Malone and Wallen’s “I Had Some Help,” Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Wallen’s “Love Somebody” spending more than half the year combined at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Speaking of Wallen, he remains a third rail for Grammy voters. He finally received his first ever Grammy nominations this year for “I Had Some Help” with Malone, but the undeniable hit was locked out of song and record of the year and relegated solely to the country categories. (The Grammys’ more than 12,000 voters can all vote in the main four categories, but then are limited to 10 categories across three genre fields in an attempt to make sure voters stick to their areas of expertise when casting their ballots).
So it will be up to Beyoncé and Shaboozey to represent country music in the main categories (all of which are presented on air, while country is often relegated to the pre-telecast) on Feb. 2 and maybe Beyoncé will finally get her long overdue album of the year win.
In other noteworthy and happy nominations, country pioneer Linda Martell, the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry, receives her first Grammy nomination at the age of 83 — in the best melodic rap performance category, for “SPAGHETTII,” by Beyoncé featuring Martell and Shaboozey.
Jessica Nicholson provided assistance on this story.
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