Beyoncé’s father, Mathew Knowles, has accused the Country Music Association (CMA) of racial bias after his daughter was not nominated for any awards at the 2024 CMA Awards.
Beyoncé was shut out of nominations at this year’s CMA Awards, the same ceremony that made her feel so unwelcome in 2016 that she had to create her own country album.
At the 2016 CMA Awards, Beyoncé performed with country music group The Chicks (formerly Dixie Chicks), which was one of the night’s most talked-about performances. The trio performed “Daddy Lessons,” a country-infused track from Beyoncé’s Lemonade album, which was praised for blending genres and honoring Southern roots.
Despite widespread acclaim, the performance quickly became contentious, with some country music purists upset that a Black pop star had crossed over into their territory.
Her Cowboy Carter topped the country chart, a first for a Black woman singing country, and spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. Despite the fact that the CMAs nominated other pop crossover artists, such as Post Malone and Shaboozey, the voting body denied Cowboy Carter nominations in any category.
This rejection becomes the second time the CMAs and their audience have clashed with Beyoncé.
Moreover, Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé’s father, believes racism was the reason his daughter was not nominated.
“There are more white people in America, and unfortunately, they do not vote based on ability and achievements; it is still sometimes a white and black thing,” he reportedly commented on the fracas to TMZ.
He continued, “In America, there is no accountability for people not being accepting of other cultures.” He added that the banjo originated in Africa and that country music is a derivative of Africa.
Will CMA address Knowles’ claims, or will this simply be another chapter in the long-standing debate about diversity in music?
