Beyoncé may not have been at this year’s CMA Awards, but that doesn’t mean she’s been forgotten.
A superstar’s country album Cowboy Carter didn’t make the list of this year’s CMA nominees, but her friends and co-workers who showed up on the red carpet made sure to say her name and keep her in the conversation of the land.
“It’s great, she threw me an alley-oop and I went up and tried to do it,” Shaboozey, nominated for Best New Artist, told PEOPLE of Beyoncé, using a basketball analogy to describe how she introduced him to Cowboy Carter helped catapult his career.
Beyoncé, Shaboozey.
Tibrina Hobson/FilmMagic; Kevin Mazur/Getty
After singing the stars’ “Spaghettii” and “Sweet Honey Buckin’,” his own single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” climbed the charts to become The Billboard Hot 100’s longest-running No. 1 hit.
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In a word, he said this year has been “endless. I love it. It feels like 10 years, but it’s only been a few months. We dropped our song halfway through the year and it’s still going.”
When it comes to the genre-blending flavor he’s brought to the country, “I feel like I’m just me,” he said. “I don’t think about it like, ‘This is going to change the game.’ I just make music that’s true to me and authentic to my experience. They say country music is made up of three chords and the truth, and I like to tell the truth over three chords or more.”
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Michael Trotter Jr. and The War and Treaty’s Tanya Trotter at the CMA Awards on November 20, 2024 in Nashville.
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
Another set of nominees, husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty, had similar sentiments to share with Shaboozey’s success ahead of the show, as well as thoughts on Beyoncé not being recognized this year.
“I think it’s very important that we recognize CMAs who do advocacy work,” said Michael Trotter, Jr. and to have the biggest single of the year, that’s very important.”
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Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer and Tiera Kennedy pose for portraits at the 2024 CMT Music Awards at the Moody Center on April 7, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
John Shearer/Getty
He continued: “We all stand on his shoulders, including the brilliant, talented and phenomenal Beyoncé s Cowboy Carterso tonight can feel like payback for a lot of different people.”
Singer Tiera Kennedy, who was also featured Cowboy Carter told PEOPLE of her love and respect for Beyoncé, and further down the carpet, Home Free began performing an a cappella version of the star’s hit “Texas Hold ‘Em,” calling it “a song that should have been nominated.”
Beyoncé’s biggest fan, mom Tina shared a video of the Home Free impromptu performance on Instagram, captioning the clip “At the CMA’s Keeping it 100!” She added the caption: “Wow!!!!!! They sound great!!!!!”
For those who need a Cowboy Carter Beyoncé moment, the star recently announced that she will be the halftime host of the Dallas Cowboys’ Christmas home game.
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Source: HIS Education