The Grammys Country Album category split might be great

NEW YORK (AP):

Flashback to February. It’s the 2025 Grammys, and Beyoncé has made history. Not only was she finally awarded the top prize of album of the year, but she also became the first Black woman to win Best Country Album, for Cowboy Carter. Recent changes by the Recording Academy have made it even more monumental: She might be the last person to ever win the award.

In June, the Academy announced that the Grammys’ Country Album title was splitting into two categories. A new award was created, Traditional Country Album. The preexisting Country Album category has been redefined and is now Contemporary Country Album, reflecting the genre’s ongoing sonic evolutions.

The decision was divisive: Some viewed it as backlash to Beyoncé’s win. Others welcomed the addition of a new award and the creative doors it might open. Some questioned how the categories would be defined in a genre where the word “traditional” is loaded.

Charles L. Hughes, Rhodes College professor and author of Country Soul, says Beyoncé’s victory was a welcomed surprise, despite being obviously worthy. That’s because her album inspired a larger conversation about reclamation, standing in opposition to the music industry’s rigid power structures and “indicated how significant this historical question remains of whether or not black folks have equal access to success in a genre of music that bears such strong black influences and has from the very beginning”.

Hughes believes the decision to alter the categories was not in direct response to her win, but the timing might’ve been less than ideal. He hopes the changes will open the category to more diversity of sounds and “whether this leads to a broader opening and opportunity for black artistes, especially black women in country music”.

Francesca T. Royster, a DePaul University professor and author of Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions, views Beyoncé’s victory as positively connected to this change. She wonders if artistes, particularly artistes of colour, like “Millie Jackson or Candi Staton, Bobby Womack” who never had their music recognised in country music categories, would now see their work recognised.

“Having these two categories just allows for more experimentation and maybe less of a double standard,” she said.

According to the Recording Academy’s rule book, the Traditional Country category is defined by “country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation”. The Contemporary Country category states that albums must “utilise a stylistic intention, song structure, lyrical content, and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of contemporary country style and culture”.

For 2026, the Contemporary Country Album category, Kelsea Ballerini’s Patterns faces off against Tyler Childers’ Snipe Hunter; Eric Church’s Evangeline vs. the Machine; Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken; and Miranda Lambert’s Postcards from Texas. In the Traditional category, it is Charley Crockett’s Dollar a Day; Lukas Nelson’s American Romance; Willie Nelson’s Oh What a Beautiful World; Margo Price’s Hard Headed Woman; and Zach Top’s Ain’t In It For My Health.

The 68th Grammy Awards will be held February 1, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.