BEYONCÉ FINALLY WINS AOTY: WAS IT MERIT OR THE INDUSTRY TRYING TO RIGHT ALL WRONGS?

Beyoncé received the GRAMMY for Album of the Year on February 2nd, 2025.

After losing out on her previous four Album of the Year nominations, Beyoncé finally took home the crown jewel of her historical GRAMMY collection (99 noms and 35 wins, more than any artist ever) for Cowboy Carter in the 67th edition of the awards show.

The Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles roared in ovation as Beyoncé made her way to the stage looking regal as always and just slightly... vindicated. The crowd of music industry elites could only nod in approval when she calmly affirmed "It's been many, many years".

Leading this edition of the GRAMMYs with the most nominations, her nomination for AOTY had everyone in a chokehold: in a specially spectacular year of music, will she finally win it? Will she not? No one doubts she deserves it, but does Cowboy Carter deserve it? If she wins, did she do it by merit or was this the Recording Academy trying to right past snubs?

Well, I believe Cowboy Carter's victory feels like the result of multiple factors aligning:

1. It's been a long time coming. Beyoncé has been the protagonist of four highly contested losses to Taylor Swift (Fearless), Beck (Morning Phase), Adele (25), and Harry Styles (Harry’s House). While all were competitive years, the decisions to award 25 over Lemonade and Harry’s House over Renaissance raised many eyebrows.
   

2. A shift in the GRAMMY voting body. Thanks to a high-profile controversy pulled mainly by The Weeknd, the Recording Academy has undergone significant reform in recent years, aiming to diversify its voting members. This comes after several artists claimed the awards sidelined Black artists, especially in major categories. Additionally, country music has traditionally leaned conservative in its GRAMMY wins, making Cowboy Carter’s success all the more significant.
   

3. Avoiding controversy and fatigue with other GRAMMY favorites. With GRAMMY darlings Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish also nominated, awarding Beyoncé may have been a way to prevent backlash and predictability. Another Taylor win could have sparked industry fatigue, while Billie’s AOTY victory might not have resonated as strongly with the cultural moment and felt "more of the same".
   

4. The musical significance of Cowboy Carter. Regardless of the politics, Cowboy Carter is a masterclass in music history, genre fusion, and artistic storytelling. One of Beyoncé's attributes that has specially shined through in Renaissance and now Cowboy Carter is Beyoncé as a curator. The specificity with which she pieced together writers, artists, and samples from all different eras and genres is one of the most impressive factors. While it may not be Beyoncé’s best album, it was the most deserving among this year’s nominees.

Despite the well-earned victory, I think we will look back at this year and this win with a little dubiety. Cowboy Carter’s win feels less like a pure recognition of this year’s best album and more like a long-overdue acknowledgment of her consistent cultural impact and hard work.

That said, Beyoncé has officially "received her flowers" and I sincerely hope this is the start of a new era for the GRAMMYS where we recognize the best music in the moment, not years too late to have to course correct a little awkwardly.

And for the record, I will die on the hill that she should have won for Lemonade in 2017, and I will gladly take on any Directioner who dares argue that Harry’s House was a better body of work than Renaissance. All my love to Harry tho.

Now, let’s see if the GRAMMYs keep the same big energy next time (see what I did there?)

Until next time!

Musically,

Nicole for ClickTrack