Good morning! Tulsi Gabbard and Kelly Loeffler testify at confirmation hearings, Ariel Investments is launching a women's sports fund, and the Grammys finally give Beyoncé her due.
- Music to my ears. Two years ago, Beyoncé set a Grammys record: The superstar became the most-awarded artist in the ceremony's history, with 32 wins. However, the record served to highlight a failure of the Recording Academy: While Beyoncé had notched the most awards, she'd long been snubbed in the presentation's most prestigious cross-genre categories.
Last night the music industry rectified that decades-long oversight, awarding Beyoncé album of the year for her country album Cowboy Carter. "It's been many, many years," Beyoncé said in her acceptance speech. The 43-year-old released her debut solo album 21 years ago, performed with Destiny's Child for years before that, and was nominated for album of the year four times, out of her eight albums, before winning.
The Grammys has long faced criticism for failing to award artists of color in its cross-genre categories. Beyoncé is the first Black woman to win album of the year since Lauryn Hill in 1999. “I hope we just keep pushing forward, opening doors,” she said in her speech.
That includes against the concept of "genre." Cowboy Carter also won best country album, a genre Beyoncé first tried to be recognized in with her 2016 song "Daddy Lessons." At the time, the Grammys' "country committee" rejected the track, preventing Beyoncé from being honored in the genre's categories.
When she came back eight years later with Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé came up against some of the same gatekeeping. Some country radio stations declined to play her single "Texas Hold ’Em." On the album, Beyoncé addressed racism in country music through her work—she interspersed sounds of her own radio station and highlighted other Black women in the genre, featuring singers Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, and Brittney Spencer on her cover of the Beatles’ "Blackbird." And this time around at the Grammys, Beyoncé's peers acknowledged her impact. She's the first Black woman to ever win the best country album award, and she also won best country duo/group performance for "II Most Wanted," her track with Miley Cyrus.
Beyoncé encouraged other artists to reject the constraints of genre. She's the first woman to win across five genres at the Grammys—pop, R&B, rap, dance/electronic, and now country. "I think sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists,” she said onstage.
To earn album of the year, Beyoncé had to cross five genres and rise to the top of her craft over two decades. The Grammys ask far less of other artists—but Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter deserve their plaudits, no matter how overdue.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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