Dolly Parton stays diplomatic in the wake of Beyoncé’s recent CMA Awards snub.
Discussing artists like Post Malone and Bey breaking into the country music scene, Dolly Parton told Variety, “I’ve been fortunate enough to be on both those albums.”
Adding: “She’s a country girl in Texas and Louisiana, so she grew up with that base. It wasn’t like she just appeared out of nowhere. Post Malone has loved country music his whole life, and then I got to do the duet with him on his album, and I think it’s a fantastic album. I thought both those albums were great.”
Commenting on Beyoncé’s snub at this year’s Country Music Awards—where her record-breaking album, Cowboy Carter, received no nominations—Dolly Parton said, “Well, you never know. 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. 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 Parton’s comments come after Beyoncé’s father, Mathew Knowles, suggested race might have influenced the awards snub. Knowles referenced Beyoncé’s poorly received 2016 CMA performance with the Dixie Chicks, arguing that despite her album being one of the year’s biggest, voters may still be swayed by racial biases. “There’s more white people in America and unfortunately they don’t vote based on ability and achievements, it’s still sometimes a white and black thing,” he told TMZ.
Though Knowles expressed dissatisfaction with the snub, he stopped short of calling the voters racist, stating that the situation “speaks for itself.” In an ironic twist, Black country artist Shaboozey, featured on Beyoncé’s album, has received nominations for Best New Artist and Single of the Year with his track “A Bar Song.”