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The 58th Annual Country Music Association Awards were put under a microscope by ‘The Beyhive’ after Beyoncé’s millions and millions of fans were furious that Cowboy Carter didn’t receive any CMA nominations. Appearing on Andy Cohen Live this week on SiriusXM, Country Music superstar Luke Bryan addressed the CMA-Beyoncé controversy head on and explained how things could have been handled differently.
For starters, Luke Bryan didn’t hesitate to admit that Beyoncé is “probably the biggest star in music” but he also adroitly explains how she could have ingratiated herself into the Country Music world *just a little bit* in order to warrant CMA nominations for her album Cowboy Carter.
Speaking with Andy Cohen, Luke Bryan said “everybody loved that Beyoncé made a country album. Nobody’s mad about it. 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.”
Luke added “Beyoncé can do exactly what she wants to. She’s probably the biggest star in music.” It wasn’t just those quotes. Bryan handled this situation with delicacy. Here’s the clip from SiriusXM (via PageSix) with more quotes below:
Luke Bryan On Beyoncé And The CMAs
Bryan continued, saying “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’s a lot about family.” He added “I’m all for everybody coming in and making country albums and all that. But just by declaring that, just because she made one.. just ’cause I make one, I don’t get any nominations.”
As one of the biggest stars in the world, Beyoncé certainly doesn’t need to show up to CMA Fest or the Grand Ole Opry or wherever. But it likely would have gone a LONG way in how she was welcomed by the Country Music world.
Something Luke Bryan didn’t touch on is how using nominations on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter would have left out up-and-coming full-time Country Music stars from the awards show. The Country Music industry needs its stars as much as any industry and the CMAs are a powerful tool used to raise the profile of the industry’s biggest stars and its up-and-comers.
Luke Bryan is a two-time winner of the CMA Entertainer of the Year Award and he knows this as well as anyone. He also astutely pointed out that just because music is ‘good’ doesn’t mean it gets nominated.
A great example of this is how Queen, Snoop Dogg, Jane’s Addiction, and others never won a Grammy Award. Chris Stapleton has been nominated for the CMA Entertainer of the Year Award 8 times and never won it! Country Music legend Dwight Yoakam never won a CMA.
So it’s not as if Beyoncé is alone in being left out by the CMAs.
As for ‘The Beyhive,’ Luke Bryan addressed them saying “Beyoncé has a lot of fans out there that have her back. And if she doesn’t get something they want, man, they come at you — as fans should do.”
It is worth noting that it was Beyonce’s fans who screamed the loudest about the lack of CMA nominations and not Beyoncé herself who is above all that.