Beyoncé's Best Country Album Grammy Win Sparks Outrage Amid Artists Who Claim Industry 'Manipulation'

Beyoncé won her first Grammy Award in the country music category as well as her first Album of the Year win for her Cowboy Carter, but not everyone is pleased.

Since her win, several other country artists have come out in protest of the album's wins, stating that her win was industry "manipulation."

Taking to his X account, John Rich slammed Beyoncé's win.

"Beyoncé wins "Best Country Album" at The Grammys🤣🤣 Way to go🤣," he wrote in one tweet.

"@laineywilson>@Beyonce," he tweeted separately.

To end his rant, Rich shared a lengthy statement that claimed award shows give artists trophies based on deals made behind the scenes.

"Folks are asking me 'how do music award shows work?' 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 outed themselves in a big way," he wrote.

Rich was not the only country musician to slam Queen Bey's win at the award show. Singer Dylan Scott posted under various country music social media outlets that fans should be the ones to vote and not the Recording Academy members.

"Time to let the fans vote! Award shows have become fake and what the narrative is. The fans are the ONLY thing that's real. So instead of a 'board' of industry people voting and manipulating the system, leave it to the fans," he said, according to Holler.

"🤐...actually, nah I'll say something. If 'Award' shows let the fans vote, they'd actually MEAN something. The fans are the ONLY reason any of us get to do this, not some big wigs/or a board of people inside the industry. LET THE FANS SPEAK!" he added in another post.

Rising singer Coby James claimed Beyoncé won so "she doesn't get mad or whatever."

"We all know this makes absolutely no sense and no one listened to this album," James added, according to Holler.

Others on social media expressed their opinion that Darius Rucker should be more awarded for his contribution to country music than Beyoncé.

"The album was trash, and these award shows are all rigged. And don't get it twisted, this ain't about color. Darius Rucker is a helluva country artist. Charlie Pride was awesome. Don't make it about race from me. Her album was just the drizzling s***s of a country album," one person wrote.

"It has nothing to do with her skin color. Darius Rucker is talented and was able to successfully cross over to country. I love him. But Beyonce is not a talented musician. She's a pop entertainer, packaged by her producer husband. I listened to some tracks from her album and thought it was awful. She has to know she doesn't deserve this, right? Everyone else in that room knows," another added.

This is not the first time that the country music community has been accused of not embracing Cowboy Carter. Luke Bryan previously shared some controversial words about why it was not nominated at the CMA Awards.

"But where things get a little tricky — if you're gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit. Like, Beyoncé can do exactly what she wants to. She's probably the biggest star in music. But come to an award show and high-five us and have fun and get in the family, too. And I'm not saying she didn't do that ... but country music is a lot about family," he said.

Bryan has since backtracked on his comments and noted that he respects Queen Bey.

"You will hear my tone and intentions which were not negative. I respect Beyoncé and I love how loyal her fans are. I spend a lot of time supporting other artists. I want everyone to win. Love yall," he said in response.

Beyoncé has a long history of friction with the country music community. She infamously got a frosty reception when she performed with The Chicks in 2016 for her song "Daddy's Lesson." According to Page Six, an audience member even referred to Beyoncé as "that black b--ch" while performing.

Despite all the controversy, she became the first Black woman to top Billboard's Top Country Albums, breaking several other country music records as well for her critically acclaimed album.

Tags

Beyonce, Beyonce Knowles, Music