Beyoncé became the most nominated artist in Grammys history on Friday, when it was announced that she had received 11 fresh nominations, bringing her total to 99, surpassing her husband Jay-Z’s 89 nominations.
The celebrity couple previously held the record for most nominations together, with each of them at 88. Jay-Z received one new nod as cowriter for several of his wife’s tracks on her country album Cowboy Carter, but Beyoncé’s 11 new nods put her way over the top. The new nominations also set a new record for most nominations for a female artist in a single year, a title previously held by Lauryn Hill.
Among those nods is one for Best Country Album for Cowboy Carter, her first album in the genre that sparked conversations about Black artists in country music. Carter was also nominated for Album of the Year, pitting her against the latest releases from Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, André 3000, and Jacob Collier.
Several individual tracks also received nods: “Texas Hold ‘Em” is up for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Country Song. “16 Carriages” is nominated for Best Country Solo Performance, her song with Miley Cyrus, “II Most Wanted” was nominated for Best Country Duo Performance, and “Ya Ya” received a nod for Best Americana Performance.
Beyoncé breaking her own record at the Grammys with her first country album is a huge moment for the singer. Earlier this year, Cowboy Carter was snubbed at the Country Music Awards, despite spending weeks at number 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums. A Black woman has never won a CMA award.
The singer hinted that her negative experience performing at the awards show in 2016 prompted her to make the album in the first place. “[Cowboy Carter] was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed,” she wrote on Instagram, “and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive.”
The result was a clean sweep of all four Grammy country categories.
