Whoopi Goldberg has attempted to lasso fan expectations when it comes to Beyoncé’s country music crossover, as The View moderator and Oscar-winning actress said she doesn’t feel the CMA Awards snubbed the former Destiny’s Child superstar when it bestowed her Cowboy Carter album with zero nominations earlier this week.
“A lot of people are surprised — I don’t know why — that it didn’t receive a single CMA Award nomination. Well, this is the question: Are you surprised?” the 68-year-old said on Tuesday’s episode of the talk show, opening the discussion up to her cohosts after she said, “I don’t think she was snubbed, I think they just didn’t… it wasn’t for them.”
Legal expert Sunny Hostin said she expected Beyoncé to score nominations for two tracks from the well-received album, including a contemporary reinterpretation of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” which Parton herself gave her blessing to — enough so that Parton actually appeared on Cowboy Carter to introduce the song.
“I happen to love Dolly Parton, so I felt that when the Queen of Country sort of passed the baton a little bit for ‘Jolene,’ which was an incredible song on her album, and ‘Texas Hold ‘Em,’ two incredible country songs, I thought she would at least get nominated for those two,” Hostin, 55, said. “But, my mother always told me, ‘Find the audience that’s looking for you.’ This audience isn’t looking for her.”
Conservative panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin jumped in, estimating that the “audience is” in Beyoncé’s corner, despite “industry insiders” in the Country Music Association voting block. “Listeners are with her,” Griffin, 35, stressed, referencing Cowboy Carter’s success on American music rankings. “The Country Billboard charts do not lie.”
Goldberg reminded Griffin that listeners are “not the voters,” before cohost Sara Haines told her colleagues that she felt artists are, most importantly, “making [music] to be consumed, not for it to be judged by people,” and that there are “always some politics involved” in awards-based voting processes.
“She knows who she is,” the 46-year-old finished. “The best revenge is success.”
Upon its release in March, Cowboy Carter hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, after its lead single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Still, select country radio stations initially refused to play the song due to Beyoncé’s artistic roots in other popular music genres.
Goldberg’s thoughts on award snubs has remained consistent over the years, including when she addressed claims that the Oscars snubbed Barbie’s Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig in the Best Actress and Best Director categories earlier this year.
“There are no snubs. That’s what you have to keep in mind: Not everybody gets a prize, and it is subjective. Movies are subjective,” Goldberg said on The View in January. “The movies you love may not be loved by the people who are voting.”