Beyoncé, the artist with the most Grammys ever, does not appear to be "stunting" the fact that her wins do not include the highest honor: Album of the year.
She raps about never winning the album of the year Grammy in the "Cowboy Carter” song “Sweet Honey Buckiin.’” The new album released March 29.
Four of Beyoncé's albums have been nominated for album of the year: "I am... Sasha Fierce" (2008), "Beyoncé" (2013),"Lemonade" (2016) and "Renaissance" (2022). She lost to Taylor Swift, Beck, Adele and Taylor Swift again, respectively. Beyoncé has 32 overall wins, a Grammy record.
In the "Cowboy Carter" song, the heralded singer appears to address never winning the Grammy's highest honor, and dismisses the recognition as being a marker for success.
“A-O-T-Y I ain’t win," she says, spelling out the acronym for album of the year.
"I ain’t stunting about them," she continues. "Take that s--t on the chin. Come back and f--k up the pen.”
Beyoncé's fan base, affectionately known as the BeyHive, noticed the lyric and have been vocal about how deserving they think she is to win the award. The calls are already rolling in for "Cowboy Carter."
"They better give Beyonce album of the year this time and I’m not playing," someone posted to X.
"No album is gonna reach the level of craftsmanship, care, vulnerability that Beyoncé has put into Cowboy Carter. This isn’t album of the year this is album of the decade," another added.
"Every year that Beyoncé drops an album if you hate her or love her you know damn well that she’s dropping the best album of the year. The greatest artist of all time i dont even have words," a third said.
All four of the albums garnered several Grammy nominations and wins, and were each considered groundbreaking.
“I Am... Sasha Fierce” is a double album, split between love songs that represented Beyoncé, and more upbeat songs representing Sasha Fierce, her onstage alter ego. “Beyoncé” was released through a surprise drop, with a music video accompanying each song. “Lemonade” pioneered the visual album and famously got fans in “Formation” as Beyoncé went from angry to revolutionary to resolved throughout the songs. “Renaissance,” a joyful ode to house and disco, was accompanied by a “wearable album” and a record-breaking world tour.
Beyoncé doesn't typically address the Grammys snubs. But her husband, Jay-Z, did during his speech at the 2024 Grammys in February. He described it as a contradiction for her to have “more Grammys than everyone, and never won album of the year.”
“So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work,” he added. “Think about that. The most Grammys, never won Album of the Year. That doesn’t work.”
He gave similar remarks to Beyoncé’s streaming company TIDAL last year ahead of the Grammys.
“I remove myself from the process and hope they just get it right,” he said at the time.
