Ah yes, the first artists I think of when I think of country music: Post Malone and Beyoncé.
In case you missed it like I did, the American Music Awards were held last night in Las Vegas, the first time the awards show had been held since 2022 while parent company Dick Clark Productions instead focused on their annual Billboard Music Awards.
But the fan-voted show announced its return earlier this year, with Jennifer Lopez as host of the show, and last month nominations were revealed for fans to cast their votes.
And the country nominations were…something.
For Favorite Country Song, the nominees were Jelly Roll’s “I Am Not Okay,” Koe Wetzel and Jessie Murph’s “High Road,” “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” by Luke Combs, “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
And it just got worse from there. Check them out:
FAVORITE MALE COUNTRY ARTIST
Jelly Roll
Luke Combs
Morgan Wallen
Post Malone
Shaboozey
FAVORITE FEMALE COUNTRY ARTIST
Beyoncé
Ella Langley
Kacey Musgraves
Lainey Wilson
Megan Moroney
FAVORITE COUNTRY DUO or GROUP
Dan + Shay
Old Dominion
Parmalee
The Red Clay Strays
Zac Brown Band
FAVORITE COUNTRY ALBUM
Beyoncé – COWBOY CARTER
Jelly Roll – Beautifully Broken
Megan Moroney – Am I Okay?
Post Malone – F-1 Trillion
Shaboozey – Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going
FAVORITE COUNTRY SONG
Jelly Roll – “I Am Not Okay”
Koe Wetzel & Jessie Murph – “High Road”
Luke Combs – “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma”
Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen – “I Had Some Help”
Shaboozey – “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Like I said, it was rough. And when the winners were announced, it wasn’t much better.
Post Malone and Morgan Wallen took home the award for Favorite Country Song for “I Had Some Help,” which is fine considering it was one of the biggest songs of the year. But then, Beyoncé won the award for Favorite Country Album for Cowboy Carter despite explicitly saying that it wasn’t a country album.
And despite artists like Ella Langley, Megan Moroney and Lainey Wilson being nominated for Favorite Female Country Artist, the award still went to…Beyoncé.
Really representing country music here, eh?
In the male category, despite competition from Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll, the award still went to Post Malone, who just dropped his first country album last year.
Almost makes you appreciate the real country award shows like the ACM Awards and the CMA Awards…
The AMAs are fan-voted, which shows the problem with including these crossover artists in the country categories: Of course more people know who Beyoncé is than Lainey Wilson or Ella Langley, but does that really mean she’s a “country artist” or deserving of an award that’s meant for country artists?
Of course there was a lot of outcry when Beyoncé wasn’t nominated for either the ACM Awards or the CMAs, but both awards shows seemed to agree that they would rather reward artists who make their living in country music than pop artists who make a “country” album.
Unfortunately the AMAs had no problem giving the country awards to pop artists.