Country Continues to Be the Grammys’ Poor Relation

The Grammys have a country problem.

This is not new news, of course, but in another banner year for country music it was reinforced when the nominations for the 68^th annual Grammy Awards were announced on Friday morning (Nov. 7).

Nowhere is the omission more obvious than in the best new artist category. To be sure, it was an extremely competitive race across several genres — but in a year when nascent country acts like Megan Moroney, Ella Langley and Zach Top were legitimate contenders with commercially and critically acclaimed breakthroughs, their names were nowhere to be found.  No country artists made the cut.

Looking further in the six general field categories, which, in addition to best new artist, include record, album, song, producer (non-classical) and songwriter ((non-classical) of the year only two country creators made the cut and both for songwriter of the year: Jessie Jo Dillon, who co-wrote songs for artists including Moroney, Jelly Roll, Russell Dickerson and Morgan Wallen that were released during the eligibility period and Laura Veltz, who had songs cut by BigXthaPlug, Jessie Murph, Josh Ross and Maren Morris, among others. (It must be noted that country’s biggest artist, Wallen, took himself out of contention this year and did not enter, but given his past lack of nominations other than for his duet with Post Malone, the voters would likely have continued to ignore him).

This has been an ongoing issue. For the last 10 years, including today’s nominations, only five country projects have received album of the year nominations among 74 contenders (and that’s generously including efforts by Americana-leaning artists, like Sturgill Simpson and Brandi Carlile, and artists who have temporarily dipped into the genre, like Beyoncé). There have only been two winners: Kacey Musgraves for Golden Hour in 2018 and Beyoncé for Cowboy Carter earlier this year.

In song of the year, over the last 10 years the only country nominations have gone to the writers of Tanya Tucker’s “Bring My Flowers Now” and Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

For record of the year, the outlook is even similarly bleaker: the only country nominations have gone to Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Old Town Road” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”  

Despite today’s goose egg, as country music has boomed over the last several years, country artists have fared best in the new artist category with eight artists receiving nominations over the last decade. However, there has been no country winner in 15 years since Zac Brown Band in 2010. And we know there won’t be one at the 2026 ceremony.

To state the obvious, the fans who have propelled country’s popularity aren’t voters. Grammy voting is a numbers game and until there are enough voters among country creators, it’s hard to see things changing. It’s clear among the winners and nominees that many of them, such as Beyoncé and Shaboozey, had projects with crossover appeal, which likely garnered them votes from beyond the country community.

That brings up a broader point, unlike other genres, such as rap and alternative, country often still remains its own island and doesn’t always cross over with other genres. That is changing, with artists like BigXthaPlug and Tate McRae collaborating with country artists and bringing new fans in, but there still seems to be a bigger divide: country listeners (including voters) likely listen to other genres of music, while fans of other genres don’t necessarily listen to country.

The Recording Academy is well aware of the country lag, and even added a new country category this year, Best Traditional Country Album, which was the only new music category added for the 68^th annual Grammy Awards. 

“The community of people that are making country music in all different subgenres came to us with a proposal and said we would like to have more variety in how our music is honored,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. told Billboard in June when the category was announced  “They said, we think we need more space for our music to be celebrated and honored.” 

That’s a great move and puts the country categories in line with a number of the other genres that have both contemporary and traditional categories, but until the number of country creators who vote rises, there is very likely to be no change in the general field because the numbers just aren’t there to cross a country artist or project over the mainstream finish line.  

The Recording Academy has been on a massive drive over the last several years to diversify its ranks especially among women, younger voters and people of color, adding 2,900 new voting members this year alone. Total voting membership is now approaching 15,000, with 73% joining since the Academy introduced a new membership model in 2019. Tellingly, only 1% of this year’s new voting members identified as being most aligned with the country genre.