That’s about where we’re at right now.
Leave it to a bluegrass picker to say what’s on half of Nashville’s mind.
After Beyoncé took home two major country trophies at the 2025 American Music Awards, Favorite Female Country Artist and Favorite Country Album, musician and songwriter Adam Lee Marcus didn’t hold back. The multi-instrumentalist hopped on social media and dropped this gem.
Beyoncé winning “Favorite Female Country Artist” is like Katy Perry winning “Favorite Astronaut.” Somebody had to say it.
And if you’re a country music traditionalist trying to figure out how to respond to the genre getting gentrified by pop royalty, you probably just said “Amen” through a sigh and a sip of something stiff.
Now, don’t get it twisted. Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album isn’t bad music. It’s well-produced, genre-blending, and even occasionally interesting. But labeling it a favorite country album and crowning Queen Bey the female face of the genre is where folks like Marcus and a whole lot of real country fans start calling it bull.
This isn’t about gatekeeping. It’s about giving flowers to the women who’ve been out here sweating it out on small-town stages for years. The Lainey Wilsons, Miranda Lamberts, and Ella Langleys of the world. Beyoncé didn’t climb that same hill. She parachuted in with a pop-country hybrid backed by one of the most powerful machines in music. Just like that, she’s taking home trophies that used to mean something about roots.
Even Shaboozey, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter collaborator, looked visibly surprised during the AMAs when his co-presenter tried giving a half-baked history lesson about the Carter Family inventing country music. (Spoiler alert. They didn’t.) It was an awkward attempt to tip a hat to the genre’s origins while completely ignoring that Black artists like DeFord Bailey and Lesley Riddle were just as foundational to country as anyone else. Irony doesn’t get much thicker than watching an AMA segment try to honor country’s roots while missing the roots entirely.
The industry hands over country’s most cherished trophies to someone who’s never had a radio hit on a country station without a controversy.
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Which brings us back to that Katy Perry astronaut line. It hits harder when you remember her 11-minute Blue Origin space flight. She brought a daisy for symbolism, kissed the Texas dirt, and called it life-changing, but the FAA didn’t even classify her as an astronaut. Joe Rogan roasted the whole thing. Symbolic? Sure. Serious astronaut credentials? Not even close.
Cowboy Carter was framed as a tribute to overlooked Black contributions in country. But when the industry turns around, and hands Beyoncé trophies meant for the folks actually keeping the genre alive, the message rings hollow.
Of course, the backlash came in hot. “You can’t gatekeep genres,” the critics shouted. “She’s from Texas, she’s Southern.” Sure. But being from the South doesn’t make you country, just like wearing Carhartt doesn’t make you a rancher.
USA Today confirmed the wins, reporting via sources that neither of Beyoncé’s country awards were part of the televised broadcast. That’s probably for the best because while some fans were clapping, a whole lot were groaning.
Meanwhile, artists like Adam Lee Marcus are just saying what everyone in boots already knows. The awards don’t reflect the genre anymore. They reflect who has the most fans, the slickest marketing, and the loudest machine behind them.
Maybe Beyoncé loves country music. Maybe she means well. But Favorite Female Country Artist, over the women who live and breathe it year-round? That’s like giving an Oscar for Best Cowboy to someone in a Target Halloween costume.
Props to Adam Lee Marcus for keeping it real, even if it stings.
