Beyoncé’s first Album of the Year Grammy is not only a “long-overdue recognition” but also addresses “the elephant in the room” that’s been “lingering” over the Grammys for years.
The singer scooped the award last night for her genre-bending album “Cowboy Carter”, which explores the Black roots of country music, and it “should help atone for past perceived snubs”, said Saeed Saeed in The National.
Beyoncé was already the most-awarded artist in Grammys history, and she now becomes the first Black woman to be awarded the Album of the Year this century. The win “finally” ends Beyoncé’s dubious honour of being the most-nominated female artist without a win in this category, said The Hollywood Reporter.
‘Rightful throne in music’
“Making history is nothing new for Beyoncé” and, with her long-denied Album of the Year win, she continues to “claim her rightful throne in music”.
“Cowboy Carter” has also put a spotlight on a host of other Black artists in the country music space, both past and present. The album, released in March, is a “paean to a panoply of traditions” that define the African-American experience, taking in genres “from folk to roots to country to rock to hip-hop”, said Michael Patrick F. Smith in The New York Times. This is not merely a “tourist’s trip into country music” but a “symphony” of cultures and genres.
Those who think that Taylor Swift was robbed of the album award this year are simply wrong, said Neil McCormick in The Telegraph. Beyoncé is an innovative artist who “keeps getting better and bolder with age”, and her “fantastic country hybrid” project was clearly “head and shoulders” above the rest of the field.
‘Glass ceiling’
The Grammys have been “crazy in love” with Beyoncé since she first burst onto the scene in 1999 as a member of Destiny’s Child, said the New York Post. Her success since has been “staggering”, with 99 nominations – the most of any artist in Grammys history. Yet, until last night, she has been routinely forced to perfect the “beauty-queen smile-and-clap routine” after four nominations for Album of the Year without a win.
Despite Beyoncé long being at the “absolute pinnacle of Black excellence”, the time it has taken for her to win this award speaks of a “glass ceiling” for Black female artists, said Leah Sinclair in Stylist in 2023.
After such a “historic sense of grievance”, this win is hugely symbolic as well as personal, said McCormick. While last night’s gong may be, in effect, a “mid-career lifetime achievement award” for Beyoncé, it is, for the Grammys, a “much-needed course correction”, said Saeed in The National.