Dolly Parton is arguably the Queen of country music. So, when Beyoncé decided to creatively venture into the genre, she was sure to tilt her brim to her classic “Jolene.” Despite the homages to country greats, rising stars, and critical acclaim, Cowboy Carter was notably missing from the CMA Awards nomination list.
While the BeyHive are fuming over the “snub,” Dolly Parton feels differently. During an interview with Variety, Dolly Parton said she doesn’t believe Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album was intentionally ignored.
“Well, you never know,” she said. “There’s so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can’t really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that. But I didn’t even realize that until somebody asked me that question.”
Dolly went on to praise the project, saying: “But it was a wonderful album. She can be very, very proud of, and I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good. So I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose. I think it was just more of what the country charts and the country artists were doing, that do that all the time, not just a specialty album.”
Dolly isn’t Beyoncé’s only Cowboy Carter collaborator to subtly address the matter. Although Shaboozey secured his own collaboration, he went on to thank Beyoncé for pushing the genre forward.
“That goes without saying,” he wrote. “Thank you, Beyoncé for opening a door for us, starting a conversation, and giving us one of the most innovative country albums of all time!”
Beyoncé hasn’t issued a response to the nominations list.