Beyoncé accepts Best Country Album award from Taylor Swift: 'Genre is a code word to keep us in our place'
Beyoncé accepts the Best Country Album award from Taylor Swift at the 2025 Grammys. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)
The crowd went wild as Taylor Swift took the stage to announce the nominees for Best Country Album.
"They say you never forget where you came from, and I will never forget standing here right on this spot, almost exactly 15 years ago, accepting the Grammy Award for Best Country album," she said.
Beyoncé, who has dozens of Grammy Awards under her belt, won the category for
Cowboy Carter.
"Wow, I really was not expecting this," she said in her acceptance speech, as the crowd went wild. "I'd like to thank all of the incredible country artists that accepted this album. We worked so hard on it."
She seemingly addressed the controversy surrounding her pivot to country music.
"I think sometimes 'genre' is a code word to keep us in our place as artists," she said. "I just want to encourage people to do what they're passionate about. And to ... stay persistent."