Cowboy Carter Got Zero CMA Nominations, What That Decision Means

Introduction

On September 10, 2024, the Country Music Association announced nominations for the 58th annual CMA Awards. Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter, an album that had debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, held the top position on the Top Country Albums chart for four weeks, produced the first country song by a Black woman to top the Hot Country Songs chart for ten consecutive weeks, and received a Metacritic score of 91 indicating universal acclaim, received zero nominations.

Morgan Wallen led the nominations with seven. Post Malone received four. Shaboozey received two.

This editorial is not about whether Cowboy Carter should have been nominated. That is a matter of opinion. This editorial is about what the CMA's decision, as an institutional action, actually documents, and what it means for the institutions themselves.

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The Eligibility Question: By the Numbers

The CMA's eligibility period for the 58th Awards ran from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024. According to ABC News reporting on the nominations, all of Cowboy Carter was eligible under these criteria, as the album's singles, album, and eligible tracks were released or reached peak national prominence during the eligibility window.

The facts of the album's chart performance during that period are not disputed:

• "Texas Hold 'Em" spent 10 weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart
• "Texas Hold 'Em" reached number one on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100
• Cowboy Carter debuted at number one on the Top Country Albums chart, making Beyoncé the first Black woman to accomplish that
• "II Most Wanted" (with Miley Cyrus) reached number two on country charts
• "Jolene" reached number three

The CMA eligibility criteria require that entries "have been first released or reached peak national prominence during the eligibility period." Cowboy Carter met those criteria. The voting body chose not to nominate it in any category.

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What the CMA Vote Is

The CMA Awards are voted on by the CMA's membership, an organization of country music industry professionals whose composition reflects the institutional mainstream of Nashville. This is not a flaw, exactly. It is the design of the process: industry professionals vote based on their judgment about what represents country music at the level the organization recognizes.

The zero-nomination result for Cowboy Carter is therefore not an anomaly or an oversight. It is the aggregate judgment of the country music establishment's membership about whether the album belonged in their recognition framework. That judgment was made in full awareness of the album's commercial performance, its cultural impact, and its presence at the top of the charts they ostensibly represent.

Beyoncé herself provided important context for how to read her own album. In a statement around the album's release, she said: "This ain't a country album. This is a Beyoncé album." That framing complicated the CMA's situation, the album's creator explicitly declined to claim pure genre status. But the album's commercial life on country charts was unambiguous.

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Who Was Nominated Instead

The 58th CMA Awards concentrated its nominations among artists who represent the Nashville mainstream's recognizable faces. Morgan Wallen's seven nominations included Entertainer of the Year and multiple song nominations for "I Had Some Help" (his collaboration with Post Malone). Post Malone received four nominations, Shaboozey received two.

The Shaboozey nominations are worth noting. Shaboozey, a Black artist who had charted with music that openly blends country and hip-hop, was recognized by the same organization that declined to nominate Beyoncé. The difference was apparently a matter of genre identification and the kind of country each artist was understood to be making. Shaboozey's music was received as entering country music on its terms; Cowboy Carter was understood, at least by the CMA membership, as something different.

Shaboozey himself responded on Instagram to the nominations announcement: "That goes without saying. Thank you @Beyonce for opening a door for us, starting a conversation, and giving us one of the most innovative country albums of all time!"

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The Institutional Meaning

Country music's institutional structures, the CMA, country radio, the Nashville label system, function as a set of overlapping filters. Each has its own criteria, its own voting body or programming directors, its own commercial incentives. What gets recognized by those institutions is not identical to what is commercially successful, critically acclaimed, or culturally significant.

The CMA's decision regarding Cowboy Carter is a primary source document about where those institutional filters currently sit. It records that, as of 2024, the Country Music Association was not prepared to classify Cowboy Carter as country, regardless of its commercial performance on country charts, regardless of the historical platform it created for Black country artists, regardless of its critical reception.

This is not necessarily surprising. It is, however, notable. And From The Stem's job is to note it clearly.

The Grammy Awards, using the same eligibility window and awarding Cowboy Carter Best Country Album in February 2025, reached a different conclusion. Two institutions, applying their own filters, produced opposite results about the same album in the same eligibility year. That divergence is itself a document about the state of country music's institutional landscape.

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What It Means for Artists Outside the Mainstream

For artists building careers outside the institutional Nashville mainstream, through independent releases, through streaming audiences, through music that does not fit a radio template, the CMA's decision about Cowboy Carter illustrates a structural reality that was already known: institutional recognition and cultural or commercial impact are not the same thing.

The decision did not diminish the album's impact on Shaboozey's career, on streaming numbers for Black country artists, or on the conversation about who belongs in country music. Those effects had already happened and continued to compound regardless of what the CMA voted.

The lesson for independent artists is not cynicism about institutions. It is clarity about what institutions measure and what they do not. If you are building a career, building an audience, building a catalog, the CMA's recognition framework is one measure among many, and not the measure that reaches people who are not already inside the Nashville tent.

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FAQ

Q: What were Beyoncé's chart performances during the 2024 CMA eligibility period? A: "Texas Hold 'Em" spent 10 weeks at number one on Hot Country Songs and reached number one on the Hot 100. Cowboy Carter debuted at number one on the Top Country Albums chart. "II Most Wanted" reached number two and "Jolene" reached number three on relevant country charts. All were eligible under the CMA's stated criteria.

Q: Why did the CMA not nominate Cowboy Carter? A: The CMA has not publicly explained its vote. The nominations reflect the judgment of the CMA membership, which consists of country music industry professionals. The zero-nomination result suggests the membership did not classify the album within their recognition framework for country music, despite its country chart performance.

Q: Who led CMA nominations in 2024? A: Morgan Wallen led with seven nominations. Post Malone received four, and Shaboozey received two.

Q: Did the Grammys treat Cowboy Carter differently? A: Yes. The 67th Grammy Awards, covering the same eligibility window, nominated Cowboy Carter for Best Country Album (which it won), Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Duo/Group Performance (which it won), Best Country Song, and Album of the Year (which it also won).

Q: What did Shaboozey say about Beyoncé after the nominations? A: Shaboozey posted on Instagram: "That goes without saying. Thank you @Beyonce for opening a door for us, starting a conversation, and giving us one of the most innovative country albums of all time!"

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