Beyoncé Secures First Album Of The Year Win For ‘Cowboy Carter’ At 2025 Grammys

At the 67th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Beyoncé won Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter, marking her first victory in the category after four previous nominations.

She had previously been nominated for Renaissance, Lemonade, Beyoncé and I Am… Sasha Fierce without securing the award.

Expressing gratitude in her acceptance speech, Beyoncé stated, “I’d like to thank and acknowledge and praise all of the firefighters keeping us safe.” She added, “I just feel very full and very honored. It’s been many, many years.”

In addition to Album of the Year, Cowboy Carter earned Beyoncé the Best Country Album award earlier in the evening, making her the first black woman to win in that category. No black woman has ever won a Grammy for a country song, despite Beyoncé’s previous attempt in 2016 when she submitted Daddy Lessons from Lemonade in a country category. The Recording Academy’s country music committee rejected it at the time.

The win follows a moment at last year’s Grammys when Beyoncé’s husband, Jay-Z, called out the Recording Academy for never awarding her Album of the Year despite her record-breaking number of Grammy wins.

“I’m just sayin’, we want y’all to get it right,” he said. “We love y’all… at least get it close to right. And obviously it’s subjective — y’all don’t gotta clap at everything — obviously, it’s subjective because it’s music and it’s opinion-based. But some things, you know, I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year, so even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work.”

Despite Grammy recognition, Cowboy Carter was completely overlooked at the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, receiving no nominations. The album’s placement within the country genre has sparked debate, leading Beyoncé herself to clarify her stance. “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album,” she wrote on Instagram ahead of the release.

She explained that her motivation for the project stemmed from an earlier experience in the country genre where she did not “feel welcomed.” “And it was very clear that I wasn’t,” she continued. “But because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive.”

Beyoncé described Cowboy Carter as a project that pushed her beyond imposed limitations. “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me,” she said. “Act II is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work… I hope that you can hear my heart and soul, and all the love and passion that I poured into every detail and every sound.”

The 67th Annual Grammy Awards were held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and streamed live on CBS and Paramount+.