This past week, music lovers took to social media with their reactions following the release of the 2026 Grammy nominations. While many celebrated the nominations of some of their favorite artists, others noticed a missing category.
Last year’s Grammys served as a historic moment for musical artist Beyoncé after she took home the awards for Best Country Album and Album of the Year. Beyoncé’s win for Album of the Year had many saying “about time,” as there had been discourse over her being snubbed in the category, causing fellow artists like Adele and Ye to take to the Grammy stage to say that she deserved the award instead.
While Beyoncé’s Album of the Year victory is one that represents her persistence as an artist and a progression of the times, her win of Best Country Album serves as the final victory and the industry’s step backwards as the Grammys has retired the category. Following Cowboy Carter’s victory and the first Black woman to ever stake a claim to the category, discussions within the Recording Academy began in June over the legitimacy of the category.
On Friday, Nov. 7th, the whispers regarding the category came to fruition as the Grammys unveiled two new categories to replace the longstanding Best Country Album award: Best Contemporary Country Album and Best Traditional Country Album.
Although the Grammys reported back in June that the split in categories was established to accommodate artists who might’ve previously not fit into the category like Charley Crockett, Sierra Ferrell, and Colter Wall, the irony surrounding the creation of two new categories directly after a woman–the first Black woman– won the category was not missed, as many took to social media with their thoughts. TheHolyGoofs on TikTok said “Beyoncé broke the Grammys and now they’re segregating music,” describing the act as “corny loser behavior [that’s] a little racist.” TikTok user @_porscheee even commented, “Not them trying to lock us out of a house we built 🤣 🤣”.
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter served as a reclamation of the genre and her validity to exist in that particular sphere of music after performing her song “Daddy Lessons” from her Lemonade album alongside the Dixie Chicks at the 2016 Country Music Awards— a space she did not feel welcomed and was racially attacked during the awards show and online afterwards.
Instead of standing up to the racism Beyoncé faced, the CMA’s wiped her performance from all platforms. In her acceptance speech, the Houston native even said, “I think genre is a cold word to keep us in our place as artists.”
So, what does the future of the Grammys hold now that the category has been divided?
According to Shelly Maree, a Recording Academy awards manager who is responsible for overseeing the country category, the split in the country category is “not a new concept” as it is already done in other categories such as pop and blues. Maree sees the change as a way to adapt and, “Honor the full spectrum of what country music is.”
Although this could be true, in addition to the timing of the category being added following Beyoncé being the first Black person to ever win the category, many begin to look back on Macklemore’s Best Rap Album victory in 2014 for his album The Heist in collaboration with Ryan Lewis.
The Heist, which was nominated in a Black dominated category, beat out works from major artists Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, and Ye; however, Macklemore’s victory in a Black dominated field did not result in action of the formation of a new category. Even after Macklemore went public saying he felt like he robbed fellow nominee Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid M.A.A.d City from winning.
So this now poses the question: Is a new category only created when a Black person releases a body of work that supersedes those of their white counterparts to make it harder or even bar them from winning ever again?
Again, this doesn’t apply to the category of Best Rap Album. A new category wasn’t created when Mackelmore took home the victory for The Heist despite feeling undeserving since a white winner had already existed in this Black dominated space (Eminem had already won four Grammys in the category by leading up to The Heist’s victory and added another to his resume the following year).
The use of the word “traditional” in the new category’s name is damaging. According to the Grammys, traditional country includes the elements of guitar, fiddle, banjo, and live drums, the use of the word—especially following Beyoncé’s historic win last year—sends the message that her album doesn’t classify as traditional country despite it including the elements the current Best Traditional Country Album category does.
This also causes damage because country music’s roots are deeply intertwined with those of Black people which could send the message that the Grammys doesn’t want to hear country unless there is a white body attached to the work.
Additionally, although there are now two categories to share the country crown, the use of the word “traditional” coupled with there not being a single artist of color nominated across both categories sends the message that every genre can evolve, but the country genre must stay stagnant in white cloaked ignorance and bigotry. It also raises the question of how pure the intentions of creating two categories to accommodate more artists were. Was it to include more artists in general, or just to include more artists that just look the same?
The Grammys, which premieres Feb. 1 on CBS, will definitely bring some showstopping moments for fans and career highlights for artists, but will be absent of the full image of America as the perspective of Black people and people of color are wiped from an entire category.