Recording Academy Restructures Country Album Category After Beyoncé’s Win
The Recording Academy has made a change to the Best Country Album category following Beyonce’s historic win at the 67th Grammy Awards earlier this year. According to a recent update posted on their website earlier this week, the Best Country Album category has been split into two categories: Best Traditional Country Album and Best Contemporary Country Album.
Academy Responds to Evolving Musical Landscape
“The Academy’s top priority is to represent the music people that we serve each year,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement. “That entails listening carefully to our members to make sure our rules and guidelines reflect today’s music and allow us to accurately recognize as many deserving creators as possible. As we kick off another exciting Grammy Season, we look forward to celebrating the amazing power of music and its ability to bring so many people together.”
Beyoncé’s Historic Achievement and Its Ripple Effect
This year, American music icon Beyonce became the first African American musician to win in the Best Country Album category and became the fourth African American woman to win in the Album Of The Year category and the first since 1999. The 27 track album created a cultural discourse over the often overlooked contributions of African American artists to country music. The album was also born out of the controversial experience Beyonce had when her 2016 song “Daddy Lessons” was rejected by the Academy for consideration following her performance with the Chicks at the 2016 Country Music Awards.
Skepticism Surrounds the Timing of the Change
This news of the Grammys splitting the category to traditional and contemporary raises a few eyebrows as to what the intention is. Especially since this change coincidentally comes after a Black woman wins it for the first time. Writer Stephanie Soteriou, in her 2025 article for Buzzfeed, “People Are Side-Eyeing The Grammys After They Announced A Pretty Significant Category Change Following Beyoncé’s Best Country Album Win” writes, “Beyoncé’s venture into the country genre certainly wasn’t welcomed by everybody, and it seems as though her Grammy win may have rubbed some people up the wrong way, as some pretty interesting changes have just been announced ahead of 2026’s show.”
New Definitions of Country: Traditional vs. Contemporary
Essentially, the category for Best Traditional Country Album will focus on album submissions by artists who utilize “traditional” country music instruments: steel guitars, organs, banjos, fiddles etc. The jury is still out on what the Best Contemporary Country Album will mean. According to the new rule, “the intent is to recognize country music that remains reminiscent and relevant to the legacy of country music’s culture, while also engaging in more contemporary music forms”.
