Beyoncé‘s father, Mathew Knowles, believes that racist voting factored into his famous person daughter’s exclusion from the 2024 CMA Awards nominees checklist.

Knowles — who managed Beyoncé’s profession throughout her time as a vocalist in pop trio Future’s Little one, in addition to her first ventures as a solo artist — tells TMZ that her awards present snub speaks to a protracted historical past of racism within the nation format. This yr’s voting, he says, exhibits “it nonetheless comes all the way down to white and Black.”

“There’s extra white folks in America and sadly they do not vote based mostly on capability and achievements,” Knowles provides. “It is nonetheless typically a white and Black factor.”

In 2024, Beyoncé was eligible for CMA inclusion based mostly on the March launch of her long-awaited nation album Cowboy Carter, that includes the record-setting No. 1 hit, “Texas Maintain ‘Em.”

The venture might have slot in a number of classes, together with Album of the Yr, Musical Occasion of the Yr or Single of the Yr.

Nonetheless, Knowles says that her snub wasn’t an enormous shock “within the present state of American tradition,” and that her historical past with the CMAs particularly makes the exclusion much more predictable. Beyoncé first carried out on the awards present in 2016 with the Chicks, with followers returning combined outcomes on her efficiency.

When she introduced Cowboy Carter, the singer talked about a earlier expertise in nation music the place she “didn’t really feel welcomed” within the style, seemingly alluding to that 2016 efficiency.

Associated: Why Was Beyoncé Shut Out on the 2024 CMA Awards?

Knowles confirms to TMZ that Beyoncé “did not have a superb expertise” on the CMAs in 2016, and says the group “by no means apologized” to her.

He additionally factors out that the banjo, a staple of nation music historical past, is initially an African instrument. Beyoncé’s “Texas Maintain ‘Em” prominently contains a banjo line, carried out by nation and Americana mainstay Rhiannon Giddens.

Knowles is often known as the founding father of Music World Leisure, which centered on gospel, pop, hip-hop, R&B and youngsters’s music. In 2016, the label acquired Compadre, a rustic music catalog together with music from Johnny Money, Billy Joe Shaver, James McMurtry and extra.

The 2024 CMA Awards are set to air on Nov. 20 on ABC.