Beyoncé becomes first Black woman in 50 years to win country music Grammy Award

The “Texas Hold Em” singer won the Best Country Duo/Group Performance accolade for “II Most Wanted”, her collaboration with queer singer-songwriter and “Flowers” hitmaker Miley Cyrus.

It’s been 51 years since a Black female artist won an award in a country music category at the Grammys, when multi-genre girl group The Pointer Sisters bagged the Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal accolade – their first Grammy Award – for “Fairytale” back in 1974.

Beyoncé was nominated for four country music accolades at this year’s Grammy Awards, including Best Country Solo Performance for “16 Carriages” and Best Country Song for “Texas Hold Em”, which she lost to Chris Stapleton and Kacey Musgraves respectively.

Her mixed genre 2024 record Cowboy Carter won the Best Country Album, beating Kacey Musgraves, Post Malone, Chris Stapleton, and Lainey Wilson.

The 43-year-old musician has previously rejected labelling Cowboy Carter exclusively as a country album, dubbing it instead as a “Beyoncé album”. As such, she entered the record into a number of genre categories at the 2025 Grammys, including Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Spaghetti”, Best Americana Performance for “Ya Ya”, and Best Pop Solo Performance for “Bodyguard”.

Beyoncé was nominated for a total of 11 Grammys at this year’s ceremony, including the coveted Album of the Year accolade, which she won a the end of the evening.

She’s previously been nominated for the leading award four times.

Last year, Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z called out the Recording Academy for failing to ever award her with the Album of the Year title. Beyoncé herself then reflected on the fact on the lyrics of Cowboy Carter track, “SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN’”.

“A-O-T-Y, I ain’t win (let’s go), I ain’t stuntin’ ’bout them, take that s**t on the chin, come back and f**k up the pen,” she raps in the song.

While her big Grammy Awards success will undoubtedly be on Beyoncé’s mind tonight, she’s also looking ahead to what’s next, announcing yesterday on the first day of US Black History Month (1 February), that she’s heading out on the Cowboy Carter Tour in 2025.