Dear Gossips,    

The Country Music Association Awards nominations were announced yesterday and you’ll never guess, Beyoncé was not nominated in a single category despite having released the country music masterpiece that is COWBOY CARTER. Shaboozey, however, received two nominations – for New Artist of the Year and Single of the Year for his smash hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”. 

 

Shaboozey acknowledged his nominations… 

 

 

But he also made sure that we know that he knows that it would not have been possible without Beyoncé. And this isn’t taking anything away from his talent and his hard work but without a platform, the majority of the people who have been listening to “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” over and over again all summer heard “Texas Hold ‘Em” first and that’s how they were introduced to Shaboozey’s own track. 

 

So for the CMAs to completely ignore the existence of the Queen and her album? This is a joke. But it’s not a surprise, and it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to Beyoncé. It was, after all, her disappointment with the CMAs and its audience that became part of the COWBOY CARTER origin story – she already told us. Back in 2016, she was there to perform “Daddy Lessons” with The Chicks and was treated so disrespectfully she decided to give them an education on the history of country music and the evolution of the genre through her own music. Which they want to pretend isn’t relevant and award-worthy. 

But if she’s not surprised that they wouldn’t nominate her, why did she submit for consideration in the first place? 

Beyoncé isn’t standing outside the gates of country music industry’s compound asking to be invited inside. Beyoncé is shining her massive spotlight at the gates and illuminating the fact that they stole and then rotted the land. She’s not asking them for acceptance because she doesn’t have to; she was always a part of its original legacy. 

 

But also, let’s not spend too much time bitching about an organisation of bigots. Because there is other Beyoncé news. Beyoncé covers GQ timed, presumably, with the launch of her whiskey, SirDavis. 

 

This is an interview… conducted over email, of course. But these are actually more revealing answers than we usually get when Beyoncé sends over her answers. She’s talking about the early days of her relationship with Jay-Z and how they communicated, relating it to how times have changed and how everyone talks more but seems to be connecting less. She’s explaining why there have been no visuals for her last two albums and the intention behind that decision. And telling us what she’s been watching, what her favourite movie of the year is (Inside Out 2), and also namechecking the artists she’s been listening to. All of them are waking up to their phones blowing up with this reveal. 

It's probably, by her standards, the most extensive Beyoncé interview we’ve had in a while. So as usual, our cultural Thanos has activated her own Time Stone and has taken over the timeline, directing the conversation away from that dusty organisation that keeps showing its ass and back onto the revolution that she’s been working on her entire career. 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey