Dolly Parton defends CMAs after Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ snub

Dolly Parton has entered the chat about Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” being shut out at the CMA Awards.

Queen Bey’s country album, which features Parton herself as well as a cover of her hit “Jolene,” didn’t get any nominations for the upcoming 58th Annual CMA Awards. The country music awards show met some backlash from many who called the lack of recognition a snub. But Parton doesn’t seem to agree.

“Well, you never know,” the 78-year-old musician said. “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,” Parton explained.

“But I didn’t even realize that until somebody asked me that question. But it was a wonderful album.”

She added that Beyoncé should be “very, very proud of the album, and I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good.”

The singer-songwriter doesn’t believe “Cowboy Carter” was intentionally shut out “on purpose.”

She continued: “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.”

“Cowboy Carter” reached No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart, and its debut single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” soared to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100. The album also had multiple top 10 hits including “II Most Wanted” and “Jolene.”