Of her “Cowboy Carter” project, Beyoncé once put in writing: “This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé‘ album.” But since there are no “best Beyoncé” categories yet recognized by the Recording Academy, the superstar did enter “Cowboy Carter” and several of its songs in country fields for the 2025 Grammys. And while there was some doubt about how her entry into that field would be received by voters in pitting her against long-time country stars, it paid off, as Beyoncé can has a country Grammy under her belt.
Beyoncé picked up the best country duo/group performance award for “II Most Wanted,” in tandem with Miley Cyrus. The award was given out during the Grammys’ pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony, in which the vast majority of the night’s honors are handed out prior to the performance-heavy prime-time telecast.
Beyoncé was up for four country Grammys this year, out of her 11 overall nominations. Three of those country categories were named in the pre-telecast, with Beyoncé missing out on the other two, to Kacey Musgraves and Chris Stapleton. Her fourth chance at winning in a country category comes tonight, when the best country album trophy is awarded in the main telecast.
Beyoncé is not the first Black woman to win a country Grammy — although she’s the first in more than 50 years. The only precedent came in 1974 when another artist coming into the genre from the outside, the Pointer Sisters, won best country performance by a duo or group for the song “Fairytale.”
As the quote at the top of this article would indicate, Beyoncé does not consider “Cowboy Carter” to be just a country album, and she submitted material from it in several different genre categories. Four of her 11 nominations this year did come in the country division: best country album, best country song (“Texas Hold ‘Em”), best country solo performance (“16 Carriages”) and best country duo-group performance (“II Most Wanted,” with Miley Cyrus). But she was also nominated in pop categories (with “Bodyguard” and “Levii’s Jeans”) as well as Americana (with “Ya Ya”) and melodic rap (“Spaghettii”).
Although Beyoncé was not in attendance at this afternoon ceremony, she will be attending the nighttime awards show and still has plenty of potential opportunities to step up to a podium, as she is nominated in the top three all-genre marquee categories — album of the year for “Cowboy Carter” and record and song of the year for the single “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
All eyes are on whether Beyoncé can finally win album of the year, in her fifth time at bat. It follows a history of presumed near-misses, like the year that Adele famously apologized for winning best album over Beyoncé’s hailed “Lemonade.” She has also never won record of the year, though she has picked up song of the year before.
All issues about her wins in the top categories aside, when it comes to the sheer volume of nominations and wins, Beyoncé’s fans have had nothing to complain about. She remains the most nominated person in Grammy history, having come into the 2025 ceremony with 99 noms to her name, including the 11 she picked up in this year’s race. And prior to this fresh set of awards, she already held the record for the most wins, with 32. (Another Beyoncé record: Her nomination for record of the year is her ninth, the most ever for any artist, even though coming in to ’25 she has yet to register a win in the category.)
