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This article was published on April 3, 2024.
At the2025 Grammy Awards, Beyonce won three awards, including Album of the Year.
Smoke Hour practically screams Weve always been here to those detractors.
to a white man in the front row at one of her shows.
Black singers, songwriters, and players are the Remus to Nashvilles Romulus.
Hearts and minds creak open and snap shut over time, typically with forceful nudges.
Its unsurprising that Beyonces CMA performance riledthatcrowd up.
The gag is the implication that she hadnt really set out to cause such a commotion then.
(The absence of both Mickey Guyton and Lil Nas X, whose banjo-laced No.
1 smashOld Town Roadgot the classic Nashville cold shoulder, is curious.)
The twang jumps out during II Most Wanted, and thegrungyAlliigator Tears unveils a high lonesome warble.
In the most carefree performances, you begin to lose a sense of Bey.
She disappears into her characters, and it ceases to matter how much a lyric wasworkshoppedinto easy understanding.
Ending Jolene with a scene more akin to the fight fromObsessed You touched mychild?
goes to show that the goal here is to dominate.
The back half of the album skews less admiring and more playful.
(You dont summon Mr.
I Fall Apartandthe former Miss Montana unless your goal is slotting into pickup-truck and dive-bar rotation, right?)
Between prospective Top 40 meteorites,Cowboypulls country-rap into its root-rock fold.
(You dont spot any of them when combingCowboys credits.)
Johnny Cash studied Black banjo player Gus Cannon.
Theres someone like him at every turn of the history.
They dont tell you about the Opryrefusingto give DeFord a Christmas present.Youhave to dig.
Cowboys final quarter makes a more subversive argument in traditional Yoncisms.
Riiverdance snatches a fluttering guitar loop off an Irish folk riff, syncing it to sparse drums.
Youre reminded of a few notable Destinys Child jams So Good, Bills, Bills, Bills, Bootylicious.
/ History cant be erased.
Lizzo announced shes quitting music after incurring backlash for singing at a Joe Biden benefit.
Instead, our sweetheart of the rodeo schemes to bring all parties painstakingly together.
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