The pop-and-R&B double album wasn’t enough. The surprise-released visual album wasn’t enough, nor was the second one. Not even the culture-dominating dance album was enough. For Beyoncé to finally win Album of the Year, she had to release a country concept record. That would’ve been a massive surprise to fans a decade ago, after 2015’s snub to Beck. But knowing the Recording Academy, it’s hardly surprising. Even when they get it right, the Grammys gonna Grammy. “It’s been many, many years,” said Beyoncé, who was shocked to even win Best Country Album for Cowboy Carter last night. Here’s how she ended her AOTY losing streak.
She spoke the Academy’s language
If you really want to play the Academy voters’ game, you have to meet them on their turf. Take jazz visionary Herbie Hancock, who only won Album of the Year in 2008 for a collection of Joni Mitchell covers. As deserving as 2022’s Renaissance was, looking back, it’s obvious it was never going to snag AOTY — only one dance album ever has, and it was Daft Punk’s tame, Pharrell-featuring Random Access Memories. The Grammys have always prized a narrow-minded, classic sense of musicianship: deft songwriting, big vocals, live instrumentation. That’s the sort of stuff that gets you votes not just from your fellow artists but from the engineers, songwriters, and band members who make up much of the Academy. And Cowboy Carter was a musician’s album, exploring country and Americana to send a broader message about the futility of genre borders.
She pulled in country voters
Beyoncé’s win for Best Country Duo/Group performance was unsurprising: Pop artists routinely win that award, and she had help from Miley Cyrus, a white artist with country credentials. But Bey’s triumph in Best Country Album, over stalwarts such as Chris Stapleton and Kacey Musgraves, showed that enough country voters were legitimately behind what she was doing. That’s important for a general-category award like AOTY, voted on by the entire Academy. Beyoncé’s usual bloc pulls from the overlapping musical territories of R&B, pop, and rap, but unlike with Renaissance, she reached a whole new sector of the Academy here.
She promoted Cowboy Carter
More than ever, the Academy wants to see you do it live. Voters knew Jon Batiste’s name because he played on TV night after night as Stephen Colbert’s bandleader. Harry Styles won AOTY for Harry’s House after a series of arena residencies. Taylor Swift’s Midnights win was just as much a recognition for the world-stopping power of the Eras Tour. Beyoncé didn’t tour Renaissance until after the Grammys, meaning older members who were already skeptical of that synthetic sound never got to hear it live before voting. So Beyoncé’s NFL halftime show for Cowboy Carter was the perfect move to remind the Academy what they were choosing. It was unmissable, during a Christmas Day game on Netflix, and full of impressive vocal moments, from Beyoncé belting down “Ya Ya” to cooing “Levii’s Jeans” with Post Malone. It was also right in the middle of the Academy’s voting period.
She was the biggest competition
Looking at the slate of nominees, nobody was really in Beyoncé’s way. This wasn’t 2015, when the Academy decided to recognize Beck’s two-decade career, or 2017, when Adele was an unstoppable force. Taylor Swift already earned the record for most AOTY wins. Billie Eilish already had a trophy in the category, too — and the Academy gave her another for Song of the Year in 2024. André 3000 had won with Outkast, and was being recognized for a more out-of-the-box project. Jacob Collier remains a little too esoteric for the Academy to award in such a big way. And Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Charli XCX were all up for the first time, and all recognized in other ways during the ceremony. For once, Beyoncé was the most obvious choice.
The Academy diversified
Earlier in the night, while welcoming back the Weeknd, CEO Harvey Mason Jr. touted how the Academy had “completely re-made our membership” this decade, adding younger members, more people of color, and more women. You could really start to see those returns last year, as women made up most of the Record, Song, and Album of the Year nominees, and nearly swept the previously male-dominated rock and R&B categories. Again, this year, the new electorate made their mark up and down the ballot. Look at a category like Best Rap Album, where Doechii became the third woman ever to win, over genre elders Eminem and Common. Or the American roots field, where quirky newcomer Sierra Ferrell swept her nominations. Or Record and Song of the Year, where voters awarded a rap song for the second time in history. Now, Beyoncé is just the third Black woman to win AOTY — exactly the sort of unfortunate stat that led the Academy to expand its membership.
The calls were too loud to ignore
The Academy doesn’t like being told what to do; that’s how you get Bonnie Raitt winning Song of the Year in 2023. So fans and critics simply saying it was unjust for Beyoncé to have never won Album of the Year was never going to do it. But after 2023, Academy voters had backed themselves into a corner, with Beyoncé now the most-awarded and -nominated artist in history, yet without a Album of the Year win. Jay-Z reminded them of it last year, as he accepted the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, pleading with the Academy to “get it right.” “She has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year, so even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work,” he said of his wife. Beyoncé underscored it a few months later on Cowboy Carter itself: “AOTY I ain’t win / I ain’t stuntin’ ’bout them,” she rapped on “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’.” “Take that shit on the chin / Come back and fuck up the pen.” The Academy also doesn’t like to be embarrassed, which is why voters end up overcorrecting so many mistakes. This year, it was finally Beyoncé’s turn.