Beyoncé has an “open invitation” to the Academy of Country Music Awards on May 8, its CEO told Billboard Thursday after the star was snubbed for her Cowboy Carter album just weeks after winning several Grammy Awards in the genre—as well as the night’s biggest award for Best Album.
Damon Whiteside tried to explain away the major snub to the publication as he promoted the show. “Were we hoping she’d be nominated? Absolutely,” he said, before explaining why Grammy voters may have been quicker to embrace Beyoncé’s first official foray into country music than ACM voters, who only vote on country music. “I think, more likely, they’re going to be voting for artists that they’ve got relationships with and work with on a regular basis and that are in the country music business 365,” Whiteside added.
Last year, Beyoncé spoke out about feeling “unwelcome” at the Country Music Association’s separate award show, saying that experience drove her to make Cowboy Carter.
In an apparent attempt to avoid a similar backlash, Whiteside is presenting the Academy’s show as an “open” space in contrast to the CMAs, despite the snub: “We’d love to have Beyoncé on the show. She has an open invitation to be on the ACM stage anytime she ever wants to.”
Beyoncé’s country album took the music world by storm, bringing in fans who normally didn’t engage with the genre and taking the top spots on the music charts. The star traces her embrace of country music to her native Texas roots, and uses the album to explore the history of the genre and its instruments to the southern Black community.
The massive move into a new genre and its enormous success put the mostly white country music world in a quandary, as attempts to ice out one of the world’s biggest stars will continue to prove difficult, particularly after her Grammy wins last year, including for Best Country Album.
Cowboy Carter received no nods from the Academy of Country Music despite those wins occurring just weeks before voting began. This, after the star alleged poor treatment at the CMAs when she performed in 2016.
Beyoncé notably didn’t let it slide as she harkened back to that experience when she dropped the album last March. “This album has been over five years in the making,” she wrote at the time, “It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed… and it was very clear that I wasn’t.”
Whiteside’s Billboard interview shows the Academy of Country Music, at least, would like to smooth things over. “We love that Beyoncé is in the country genre,” Whiteside said Thursday. “That’s fantastic for all the country artists out there. It’s fantastic for the fans. The more successful she is, the more we’re bringing more mainstream people into the genre which we want.”
And yet, still, the organization’s voters didn’t think her mainstream country hit deserved to be honored alongside more “traditional” country acts like Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson, and Cody Johnson, who landed seven nominations a piece.
