Was Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter deliberately overlooked by the 2024 CMA Awards? Dolly Parton doesn’t believe so. After Queen Bey’s eighth studio album did not receive any nominations for the 58th Annual CMA Awards, the country legend, who features on two tracks, shared her thoughts with Variety.
“Well, you never know,” said the 78-year-old Parton, who contributed to “Dolly P” and “Tyrant,” while Beyoncé, 43, covered her hit “Jolene” for the album.
“There’s so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can’t really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that,” explained Parton. “But I didn’t even realize that until somebody asked me that question. But it was a wonderful album.”
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Parton added that Beyoncé “can be very, very proud of [the album], and I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good.”
“So I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose,” continued Parton. “I think it was just more of what the country charts and the country artists were doing, that do that all the time, not just a specialty album.”
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, released in March, soared to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and produced a chart-topping single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” along with two other top-10 hits, “II Most Wanted” and “Jolene.” Despite its success, the album received no nominations for the 58th Annual CMA Awards.
Leading the nominations were Morgan Wallen with seven, Chris Stapleton and Cody Johnson with five each, and Post Malone and Lainey Wilson with four each. Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Megan Moroney, and Kacey Musgraves, along with producers/songwriters Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome, and Hoskins, each earned three nominations.
Elsewhere in Parton’s Variety interview, she spoke about featuring on both Cowboy Carter and Post Malone’s recent country album, F-1 Trillion. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be on both those albums,” she said.
“Well, ‘Jolene’ was in Beyoncé’s, and I thought that was a great album. She’s a country girl in Texas and Louisiana, so she grew up with that base. It wasn’t like she just appeared out of nowhere,” continued Parton. “Post Malone has loved country music his whole life, and then I got to do the duet with him on his album, and I think it’s a fantastic album. I thought both those albums were great.”
