Two of the biggest and most talked-about albums of 2024 have come from pop artists crossing over into the realm of country music: Beyoncé ’s April release, “Cowboy Carter,” and Post Malone ’s August LP, “F-1 Trillion.” Beyond the most basic genre-crossing surface similarities, these two records could hardly be more dissimilar in their ambitions and how they’ve been received by radio, critics and different subsets of fans. So how will those differences play out in the upcoming Grammy nominations? And will either of these two superstars be seen by the Recording Academy’s Nashville-centric voters as more of a conquering hero — or unsolicited interloper — than the other? Here’s a bold prediction: Both “Cowboy Carter” and “F-1 Trillion” will be nominated for country album of the year and make it into the all-genre album of the year category .
.. but it will be based on their appeal to almost completely different blocs of voters.
When the Beyoncé project was first unveiled with a pair of teaser tracks six months ago, the initial response from country radio was guardedly positive. Initial signs were fairly positive for the prospects of the single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which initially wasn’t going to be promoted to the country format at all, but then did get a push after there was a fast hue and cry over that. But there was also a sense that some of the programmers who were open to it were doing it out of some kind of politeness, or hopefulness.
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