How about extending that invite to some country artists?

Over the past decade or so, country music awards shows have taken a lot of criticism for abandoning their country music roots to include artists from other genres to try to appeal to a broader audience.

Spoiler alert: It doesn’t work, because the ratings just continued to go down. And while the CMA Awards seem to have shifted away from that line of thinking the past couple years and have made what seems like a more conscious effort to focus on country artists, the ACM Awards have taken a different approach and have fully embraced not only artists from other genres but Hollywood celebrities, athletes, and pretty much anybody else they think can help them pull in eyeballs to their show.

This past fall, there was a lot of criticism of the CMA Awards after Beyoncé was left out of the nominations following the release of her country-inspired album Cowboy Carter.

Now, the pop superstar had specifically said that the album wasn’t a “country album,” and the CMAs apparently took her at her word – which upset a lot of people and led to cries of racism from the usual suspects who have nothing better to add to the conversation.

While she wasn’t recognized at the CMA Awards, Beyoncé ended up winning both Album of the Year and Best Country Album. But when the nominations were announced for the 2025 ACM Awards earlier today, Beyoncé was once again nowhere to be found.

It seems that the “snub” wasn’t as controversial this time around, probably because we’ve been through the manufactured outrage already just a few months ago, but the CEO of the Academy of Country Music, Damon Whiteside, explained why he believed that the academy’s members didn’t give the pop superstar any nominations:

“I think, more likely, they’re going to be voting for artists that they’ve got relationships with and work with on a regular basis and that are in the country music business 365.”

I mean, seems reasonable to vote for artists who are…in the country music business.

But Whiteside also said that he was disappointed Beyoncé was left out of the nominations:

“Were we hoping she’d be nominated? Absolutely. We love that Beyoncé is in the country genre. That’s fantastic for all the country artists out there. It’s fantastic for the fans. The more successful she is, the more we’re bringing more mainstream people into the genre which we want.”

Of course, that’s the same failed line of thinking that got their awards show dropped by cable networks and forced to move to Amazon Prime. A pop star in country music doesn’t make country music more popular. It’s country artists who are the real ambassadors for the genre, which is why it should be country artists who are featured at the awards shows.

But it sounds like Whiteside is still eager to try to get Beyoncé on the show, whether she’s nominated or not:

“We’d love to have Beyoncé on the show. She has an open invitation to be on the ACM stage anytime she ever wants to.”

A pop star has an open invitation, but there are country artists who will never even get an invite to sit in the audience.

Pretty much sums up the ACM Awards.

Source: www.whiskeyriff.com