Beyonce’s first Album of the Year success with the country music-inspired Cowboy Carter was not just long-overdue recognition of her sustained excellence – it also addressed the elephant in the room lingering over the Grammy Awards for nearly 25 years.
For many fans, it should help atone for past perceived snubs when other artists took home the award despite widespread critical consensus having favoured Beyonce – most memorably in 2017 when Adele, upon winning the category for 25, openly apologised to her on stage.
Beyond righting past oversights, the 2025 Grammys win could also mark a potential turning point for the ceremony itself as it strives to adapt in the digital broadcast era.
Beyonce – following a long line of zeitgeist-defining artists, from Michael Jackson to Taylor Swift – has also played her part in the cultural evolution of the awards through wins and nominations for albums that have become cultural milestones.
Her Grammys journey also reflected her own evolution as an artist, transitioning from polished yet musically conservative RnB to bold, statement-making albums. She first appeared at the ceremony in 2001, as part of the all-girl group Destiny’s Child, when they won awards for Best RnB Performance by a Duo or Group and Best RnB Song. In a way, these wins may have hastened her decision to launch a solo career two years later. The group seemed to have hit their artistic ceiling in terms of recognition.
And when it came to her solo journey, the Grammys were there from the start. Her first solo album, Dangerously in Love – a genre-expanding release in 2003 that blended hip-hop, soul and pop influences with traditional RnB – made a near-clean sweep of the RnB-specific categories in the 2004 ceremony, including Best Contemporary RnB Album and Best Female RnB Vocal Performance.
That initial success would eventually turn to frustration over the next five years, as Beyonce seemed locked out of major award categories and instead settled for genre-specific accolades.
These included Best RnB Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for her Stevie Wonder collaboration So Amazing in 2006, followed a year later by a win for Best Contemporary RnB Album for B’Day.
Like her decision to pursue a solo career following Destiny’s Child’s Grammy wins in 2001, the Grammys could be credited for prompting Beyonce’s shift away from commercially-driven RnB. She may have been motivated to expand her sound and avoid being boxed in.
After securing four more genre-specific awards – as well as Song of the Year for Halo in 2010 – she embraced a more adventurous, boundary-pushing sound.
It was an era in which Grammy voters faced criticism for failing to properly recognise Beyonce’s catalogue. Her 2011 album, 4, a subtle and lush record that saw her embracing African rhythms, was universally acclaimed yet didn’t even receive a nomination for Album of the Year.
Meanwhile, her self-titled 2013 album, which pioneered the now-standard strategy of releasing a visual album without prior promotion, once again earned her RnB-specific awards, as well as a win for Best Surround Sound Album.
Then came Lemonade (2016). It was a masterpiece that sparked conversations about racism, intergenerational trauma and the complexities of relationship breakdowns in an era of “conscious uncoupling”. Widely regarded as one of the biggest Grammy snubs of all time, its loss to Adele’s 25 in the Album of the Year category even had the winner herself apologising on stage.
In many ways, her eventual walk to the podium for Cowboy Carter marks a significant moment for both the artist and the Grammys. For Beyonce it serves as a mid-career lifetime achievement award – recognising both a boundary-pushing album and her astonishing consistency. For the Grammys, it represents a much-needed course correction in acknowledging popular music within an increasingly genre-fluid landscape.
While Beyonce may have been visibly shocked to win Best Country Album Award earlier in the night – making her the first black woman to win a country award at the Grammys since the Pointer Sisters in 1975 – it is a welcome sign that the gatekeepers of the genres are also becoming more welcoming to those who cut their teeth in other traditions.
