The 58th Annual Country Music Association Awards nominations were announced on September 9, and two artists from outside the world of country music made news: Post Malone by being nominated four times, and Beyonce by being nominated zero times. So what gives?

Why was one genre interloper welcomed into the fold, but not the other? And what does it say about the complexion of country music?

Beyonce first showed signs of her country curiosity with her song “Daddy Lessons” from her landmark album “Lemonade.” She actually performed that song at the CMA Awards with The Chicks eight years ago, which itself sparked some controversy.

In 2024 she released “Cowboy Carter,” a genre-bending album with unabashed country influences; its lead single “Texas Hold ‘Em” topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Country Songs charts. And while the snub of “Cowboy Carter” isn’t too surprising given how musically diverse it is — Beyonce herself even declined to call it a country album, per se — “Texas Hold ‘Em” is unmistakably country, so its absence from all CMA categories is glaring.

One could speculate that the country music industry rejected Beyonce because she’s not typically a country artist. But how then to explain the inclusion of Malone, who isn’t typically associated with country music either?

Malone has hopped genres about as much as Beyonce has throughout his career, traversing rap, rock, and pop. This year he added country to his repertoire with the album “F-1 Trillion” and its chart-topping lead single “I Had Some Help” featuring Morgan Wallen. “I Had Some Help” did get some love from the CMAs — quite a lot of it actually. The recording is up for Single of the Year, Song of the Year, Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year.

The good news for Beyonce is that the positions will likely be reversed at the upcoming Grammys. There she’s the all-time most awarded individual with 32 trophies to her name, so wherever her genre-bending album ends up competing, she probably has nominations on lock. Malone, meanwhile, is still trying to prove himself to the recording academy; he has earned 10 bids so far, but he has yet to win in any category. Perhaps the CMA success of “I Had Some Help,” though, is a sign that the music industry is ready to fully embrace him at last.

Whatever happens later, however, doesn’t change what a weird look it is for the CMAs to hold different crossover artists to such different standards, especially given how people of color have struggled to get traction in today’s country music and how Malone’s collaborator Wallen was not so long ago semi-cancelled for using a racial slur. For whatever reason, Malone had some help, and Beyonce didn’t.