Beyonce‘s new album Cowboy Carter, her first journey into country-Americana music, has been a bonafide hit since it dropped six weeks ago.

But the multi-Grammy Award-winner didn’t receive any love at Thursday’s ACM Awards in Frisco, Texas, and it’s not due to any kind of genre-bending biases.

It turns out Beyonce’s lack of nominations at the 2024 ceremony was solely due to the Academy of Country Music‘s eligibility period for nominees that runs from January 1 to December 31, 2023.

That means Beyoncé’s newest album missed the cut by about three months, considering Cowboy Carter was officially released on March 29.

While Cowboy Carter, the second of a planned trilogy of albums following Renaissance (2022) wasn’t recognized this year, it will be eligible to be considered for nominations for the 2025 CM Awards.

Beyonce’s new album Cowboy Carter, her first journey into country-Americana music, has been a bonafide hit since it dropped six weeks ago

The Crazy In Love star isn’t the only musical artist who will have to wait until 2025 to see whether they’ll take home trophies at the ceremony that’s known as Country Music’s Party of the Year.

Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well, Sheryl Crow’s Evolution and Yellowstone actor Luke Grimes’ self-titled album were all too late to be considered for awards in 2024, according to E! News, although Musgraves did score nominations for Female Artist Of The Year and Music Event Of The Year.

Initially, Beyoncé announced Cowboy Carter during the Super Bowl in February, and then dropped the album late the following month.

Soon after it earned the distinction of being her eighth consecutive number one album on the Billboard 200, all while making her the first Black woman to top the Top Country Albums chart.

The success came on the heels of her first single, Texas Hold ‘Em hitting the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Country Songs chart.

Her second single, 16 Carriages, would end up debuting at number nine on the Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

She got two more top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with her third single, II Most Wanted featuring Miley Cyrus, as well as with her with cover of Dolly Parton’s classic song Jolene.

But the multi-Grammy Award-winner didn’t receive any love at Thursday’s ACM Awards in Frisco, Texas , and it’s not due to any kind of genre-bending biases

It turns out Beyonce’s lack of nominations at the 2024 ceremony was solely due to the Academy of Country Music ‘s eligibility period for nominees that runs from January 1 to December 31, 2023; seen in April

‘The joy of creating music is that there are no rules,’ the singer-songwriter said about exploring the country genre, as reported by People. ‘The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity.’

‘With artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old ones,’ she added. ‘I didn’t want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and organs perfectly in tune. I kept some songs raw and leaned into folk.’

Having sold more than 200 million records worldwide Beyoncé is one of the best-selling music artists of all time

The 2024 ACM Awards, hosted by Reba McEntire, streamed live on May 16 starting at 8pm ET on Amazon Prime Video.