Dolly Parton Seemingly Defends CMAs After Beyonce’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ Shut Out: You Can’t Overlook “Country Artists That Do [Country Music] All the Time” for a “Specialty Album”

Beyond contributing her legendary vocals to Beyonce‘s history-making last album, the Country-inspired ‘Cowboy Carter,’ music icon Dolly Parton has been among its most vocal defenders against critics who slammed the project for inauthenticity (among other critiques).

Despite her crusade on behalf of the chart-topping LP, some Bey fans (affectionately called the #Beyhive) gave the Country Queen a royal side-eye recently after the surfacing of her latest interview with ‘Variety‘ where she spoke out about the Pop diva’s unceremonious snub from being nominated at this year’s CMAs.

Look inside to see what Parton said that’s ruffled some feathers (and bee wings).

Though primarily hot on the promo trail in support of the launch of her new meal kit and cookbook, Dolly may have turned up the heat when she was grilled about her thoughts on the CMAs exclusion of content from ‘Cowboy’ from its 2024 nominations’ roster.

And while Bey’s father and former manager Mathew Knowles suggested her omission was racially motivated, Parton believes there’s another reason.

“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 told the interviewer, “I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose. 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.”

Dolly, a 10x CMAs winner, has also hosted the event in the past.

And while her commentary seemingly defended the award show and its organizers for leaving Bey out, the 78-year-old was clear that she is still a massive fan of ‘Carter.’

“It was a wonderful album. She can be very, very proud of, and I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good,” Dolly said.

Click here to read the full interview.