‘Come to an award show and high-five us’: Luke Bryan wants Beyoncé to support country artists after they rejected her

When asked about his opinion of Beyoncé’s CMAs snub, country singer Luke Bryan suggested she needed to be part of the country artists’ world, even though she did try to show up and “be country with them,” but was rejected.

When the 2024 Country Music Association Awards nominations were announced, outrage arose when Beyoncé received zero nominations despite releasing one of the year’s best country albums. Her Cowboy Carter album spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, marking the first time in history a Black women’s country album attained the spot. Beyoncé’s album received high critical acclaim. It was musically successful and hailed for its historical and cultural significance as it highlighted Black artists’ contribution to country music, a genre they’ve been historically barred from. When the album failed to receive a single nod at the CMAs, it almost seemed to confirm Beyoncé’s point about the country genre not being very welcoming to Black artists.

However, some country artists have different ideas about what the snub means. Dolly Parton suggested that Beyoncé wasn’t a real country artist and that Cowboy Carter was just a “specialty album” since she didn’t have a history in the genre. Now, Bryan has claimed that the snub could’ve been because she wasn’t part of their “world.”

Luke Bryan’s advice to Beyoncé misses the point

While appearing on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, Bryan shared his thoughts on Beyoncé’s CMAs snub. He noted that it was a “tricky question” and suggested that the snub was only a big topic of conversation because of her fans. He said, “Beyoncé made a country album, and Beyoncé has a lot of fans out there that have her back. And if she doesn’t get something they want, man, they come at you, as fans should do.” He pointed out that “a lot of great music is overlooked,” and making a country album doesn’t “automatically” mean it will get nominated.

However, things got strange when he offered his final theory on why the CMAs specifically chose to exclude Beyoncé. According to him, it’s because she hasn’t tried to be “country” with her fellow country artists. He claimed the country genre is about “family” and suggested Beyoncé try to be a part of that family by showing up at awards shows and giving her fellow country artists “high-fives.” Bryan stated:

But where things get a little tricky — if you’re gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit. Like Beyoncé can do exactly what she wants to. She’s probably the biggest star in music. But come to an award show and high-five us and have fun and get in the family too. And I’m not saying she didn’t do that…but country music is a lot about family.

His advice to Beyoncé to be part of the country family is quite strange. Did he forget what happened when she tried to do just that? Years before Cowboy Carter was released, Beyoncé showed up at the 2016 CMAs to support her fellow artists and perform for them. She joined The Chicks onstage for a live performance of “Daddy Lessons,” which was her first foray into the country genre. Instead of being welcomed into the country “family,” Beyoncé was subjected to a wave of racist and sexist backlash online. Further controversy arose when the CMAs chose to wipe any mention of the performance from its social media, although it claimed it did so because Beyoncé’s team didn’t approve it.

The experience had such a profound effect on Beyoncé that it inspired her to dive deeper into the genre and its history and release Cowboy Carter. Yet, Bryan seems to be ignoring the fact that the genre hasn’t welcomed Beyoncé. Just because he may have experience being welcomed and embraced in the country community doesn’t mean that the experience is the same for everyone. The CMAs are known for their contentious history with Black artists. It’s quite ignorant to suggest that all that history and tension could just be washed away if Beyoncé came to an awards show and gave out high-fives.

To say that her lack of immersion in the country world is the reason for her CMAs snub is even more ludicrous. The nominations should be based on the quality of her music, not how immersed she was in a community that led to her facing racist vitriol. If Beyoncé appears to other country artists not to be part of their “world” enough, it’s not because she didn’t try; it’s because the genre rejected her.