Beyoncé Wins Album Of The Year And Best Country Album For ‘Cowboy Carter’

Beyoncé won for the first time ever in the highly lauded Album of the Year category at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards and became the first black artist to win Best Country Album with “Cowboy Carter.”

“I’d like to thank all of the incredible country artists that accepted this album. We worked so hard on it,” she said. “I think sometimes genre is a cold word to keep us in a place as artists.”

The 43-year-old pop star took home top honors for her country album. Other nominees for Album of the Year included Andre 3000, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli xcx, Jacob Collier, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, and Taylor Swift.

Beyoncé began her acceptance speech by saying she’d “like to thank and acknowledge and praise all the firefighters for keeping us safe.” Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department were still on the stage after presenting her with the award.

“Cowboy Carter,” a multi-genre album, was released in March and received mostly positive reviews. However, it was not nominated for any Country Music Association Awards last year.

Beyoncé was also nominated for nine other Grammy awards, making her the most-nominated artist in Grammy history.

Cowboy Carter was in no way a shoo-in as fans speculated that Swift, Eilish, Charlie xcx and hot new star Chappell Roan would offer tough competition for Album of the Year. 

Despite Swift’s massive popularity and the success of her Eras tour, which wrapped up this year, she did not win any Grammys last night.