Beyonce lands best country album Grammy award for Cowboy Carter

Beyonce secured best country album at the Grammy Awards for Cowboy Carter, which was born from an experience where she “did not feel welcome”.

The US superstar leads the nominations on Sunday with 11 nods for her chart-topping country record which could make Grammy history as the most decorated album, a title currently held by Santana’s Supernatural which received nine awards in 2000.

Pop star Taylor Swift presented the award to a shocked Beyonce at the ceremony being held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Delivering her acceptance speech, the singer said: “I really was not expecting this. I want to thank God that I’m able to still do what I love after so many years.

“I’d like to thank all of the incredible country artists that accepted this album. We worked so hard on it.

“I think sometimes genre is a cold word to keep us in our place as artists and I just want to encourage people to do what they’re passionate about and to stay persistent.”

Ahead of releasing the album last year, the 43-year-old said in a social media post that the album had been “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed… and it was very clear that I wasn’t”.

She added: “But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive.”

The win comes after she was snubbed at the Country Music Awards, despite the Texas-born star becoming the first black woman to top Billboard’s country music chart with Texas Hold Em’.

The singer thanked her “beautiful family” as her daughter Blue Ivy and her husband Jay-Z looked on from the audience, as well as her fans and the artists who collaborated with her on the album, including Miley Cyrus and Post Malone.

Ahead of the ceremony, Beyonce announced she would be taking Cowboy Carter on tour with an Instagram post featuring a light-up billboard.

She currently holds the title of most Grammy wins in a lifetime after the singer made history when she picked up her 32nd gong in 2023.

However, the star has never won the prestigious album of the year prize and she will be hoping to rectify that this year as Cowboy Carter is up for the coveted award.

She will face tough competition for the prize from Charli XCX’s Brat, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard And Soft, Chappell Roan’s The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess and Swift’s eleventh record The Tortured Poets Department.

Rapper Andre 3000 is also nominated for his jazz flute album New Blue Sun alongside Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol 4.

Beyonce picked up her first award of the night during the pre-ceremony for her song featuring Cyrus, titled II Most Wanted, winning the country duo/group performance gong.

Chappell Roan called for the music industry to provide a “liveable wage and healthcare for artists” as she collected her first Grammy award.

After the 26-year-old US star secured the prestigious best new artist prize, she revealed she had told herself she would demand that labels and the industry would protect artists more if she ever won.

She recalled feeling “betrayed” and “dehumanised” when she struggled to find work and afford health care during the pandemic after getting dropped by her first label as a young artist when she had “giving everything” to them.

Earlier in the night, she delivered a joyful and theatrical performance of her disco anthem Pink Pony Club which saw her start by sitting on a giant pink pony before joining a group of dancers dressed as rodeo clowns for some western-inspired choreography.

Pop star Carpenter also secured her first two Grammy wins, picking up best pop vocal album award for her sixth studio album Short n’ Sweet and best pop solo performance award for her summer hit Espresso.

The US singer was cheered on by fellow nominees Swift and Eilish as she made her way to the stage shortly after performing a medley of Espresso and Please Please Please from the winning album.

Collecting the award, she said: “I’m still out of breath from the performance, so I really was not expecting this.

“And all those nominees that were just on the screen are some of my favourite artists in the world, and I can’t believe I’m nominated against them, or even in this room right now. This is my first Grammys.”

The 25-year-old thanked her mother for “driving me to every voice lesson” along with her father and sisters.

Ahead of the win, Carpenter delivered a theatrical performance in a black sparkly tuxedo dress which she tore away to reveal an ice-blue sparkly bodysuit underneath.

US star Eilish also performed a melodic rendition of her song Birds Of A Feather, which is nominated for record of the year and song of the year.

Rising star Doechii secured best rap album for her third mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, becoming the third woman to do so after Lauryn Hill and Cardi B, with the later rapper presenting the award on Sunday.

Colombian singer Shakira dedicated her best Latin pop album award for her 12th record Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran to all of her “immigrant brothers and sisters” in the US.

Host comedian Trevor Noah opened the ceremony by paying tribute to the “spirit” of Los Angeles communities after they came together following the devastating wildfires.

This year’s show is being dedicated to wildfire relief after wind-driven blazes swept through parts of the Californian city last month, destroying neighbourhoods and killing at least 28 people.

The show kicked off with a performance of Randy Newman’s I Love L.A. by John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley, Brittany Howard and St Vincent with folk rock band Dawes.

British star Charli XCX was among the early winners at the Grammys premiere ceremony with the singer picking up best dance/electronic album for her culture-shaping sixth record Brat and best dance pop recording for its lead single Von Dutch – her first Grammy wins.

The hashtag #BRATSWEEP has been gaining traction on social media off the back of the album Brat, which inspired a summer trend, already securing a number of prizes.

The Beatles picked up best rock performance for their new song Now And Then, which was written and sung by John Lennon and later finished by Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr using overdubs and guitar tracks by George Harrison.

Meanwhile, fellow British rockers The Rolling Stones won best rock album for their 2023 Hackney Diamonds, their first album of original music in 18 years.

Despite her early success, Beyonce was beaten to best country song by Kacey Musgraves for her song The Architect with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne.

US rapper Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us also picked up a slew of early prizes including best music video, best rap performance and best rap song.

The 2025 award show is being hosted by South African comedian Noah for the fifth year in a row with 94 awards set to be handed out across the premiere and main ceremony.