Despite topping Billboard's Country Albums chart, earning her first Grammy award for Album of the Year, and headlining the highest-grossing country tour ever, Cowboy Carter, the country music album by Beyoncé, wasn't embraced by Nashville.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Both the CMA Awards and the ACM Awards snubbed the album. She has also faced criticism from Oliver Anthony, Hannah Dasher, and, even more infamously, Gavin Adcock.
Then the Recording Academy announced in June a change that many believed was a response to the backlash over Beyoncé's win. Instead of having one best album category, it's been split into two: Contemporary and Traditional. The Recording Academy pointed out that the change was in the works for years.
Beyoncé's mother, Tina Knowles, recently spoke out about the gatekeeping in country music in a new documentary that premiered on Peacock last month. We have the details below.
Tina Knowles Says Beyoncé Didn't Rewrite History
Beyoncé stated that Cowboy Carter was inspired by a moment when she "did not feel welcomed" in country music. She also emphasized that it "ain't a Country album."
In the three-part documentary High Horse: The Black Cowboy, Knowles echoed Beyoncé's sentiments. She stated that the "gatekeeping in country music is unbelievable."
Knowles said, "People say 'Oh, (Beyoncé) is rewriting history.' No, you rewrote the history. We are just going back and straightening the story up."
Knowles Shared a Story of Racism She Experienced
Later in the documentary, Knowles shared an account of racism she experienced at the Kentucky Derby last year.
"It was a very big wake-up call for me to attend the Kentucky Derby and to see this closed-off culture," she explained. "Someone came up and said, 'Oh, Tina Knowles is next.' And the other young lady walked up and said, 'Oh no, because we need a ... and (she) ran right into my face, and I said, 'A white person?' She went behind me, got the couple behind me and brought them on."
She continued, "There's a lot of racially charged energy, which is really ironic because we really started this stuff."
Adding to the ongoing debate, Breland recently shared his take on why Beyoncé wasn't accepted in Nashville.
"She chose to put a bunch of artists on there that people weren't as familiar with," he said. "And didn't come to town and play the game the same way that everyone else would. So it's really easy for the institutions in Nashville to be like, 'She's not with us because she didn't come here and take all the same steps that someone like Post Malone or BigXthaPlug did.'"
Despite the controversy, Beyoncé succeeded in changing country music. Whether it was for the best depends on who you talk to.
