"This is why the Grammys suck"- Sylvester Stallone's brother calls out Beyoncé's win for Cowboy Carter, claims someone 'got paid off' 

Sylvester Stallone’s brother, Frank, took to Instagram on February 3 to address Beyoncé winning the Best Country Album Grammy Award for her Cowboy Carter album.

This comes after the pop star was nominated in 10 other categories and her winning the Best Country Duo/ Group Performance for II MOST WANTED, which she featured Miley Cyrus. The album has drawn controversy online, with many country listeners opining that the album does not belong to the Country Music genre at all.

For those uninitiated, Frank Stallone is the younger brother of actor Sylvester Stallone, who had his own music group Valentine before launching his own music career. In 1983, Frank released his hit song Far from Over, which also appeared in the Staying Alive movie.

Frank Stallone took to Instagram recently to opine that Beyoncé should not have won the Grammy Award over Lainey Wilson, Post Malone and Chris Stapleton. He said:

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Beyoncé gets best country album against Lainey Wilson, Post Malone, Chris Appleton, Kacey Musgraves. Come on now! This is why the Grammy’s suck. She’s not a country artist.”

He added:

“I don’t begrudge anyone winning, but fair’s fair. That’s ridiculous. Someone got paid off. Sorry.”

Beyoncé made history by being the first Black woman to win in the best country album category. She also became the first ever Black female solo artist to win a country Grammy in the past five decades. The Pointer Sisters had previously won a Grammy for best country vocal performance by a duo/ group, back in 1975.

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Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter-country album controversy explained as Frank Stallone rips into the former’s Grammy win

Beyoncé’s latest album, Cowboy Carter, dominated country charts following its release, angering many ardent country music fans. The album topped the country chart and spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, but was rejected by the country music community.

Last year, the album was also rejected by the 2024 Country Music Awards, making it the second time they had clashed with Beyoncé. Back in 2016, the Cuff It crooner received backlash over performing with the Chicks, considering the artists' political identities.

Meanwhile, the BeyHive could not fathom Cowboy Carter’s CMA snub despite them nominating other pop artists who had experimented anew with country music, such as Post Malone and Shaboozey.

Publications like Vox reported that the country music industry has had a long-time problem with excluding artists of color. The CMA’s had previously also snubbed Beyoncé’s Daddy Lessons track in 2016.

The CMAs went on to reject Black artist Lil Nas as well after the latter came out as gay. However, the country music industry was more welcoming of other Black and straight country artists like Charley Pride, Ray Charles and Shaboozey, who had collaborated on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album.

Elaborating on the album controversy, First Post reported that experts believe country music listeners have an issue with Bey's album purely because country is a music genre made by and for Caucasian people.

The Renaissance creator seemingly addressed the controversy while accepting her Grammy Award for Country Album of the Year. She said on the Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles stage:

“I think sometimes ‘genre’ is a code word to keep us in our place as artists. I just want to encourage people to do what they are passionate about and to stay persistent.”

The Formation singer was competing against Musgraves' Deeper Well album, Wilson’s Whirlwind album, Stapleton’s Higher release and Malone’s F-1 Trillion.

Beyoncé was presented with the prestigious award by Taylor Swift.