She did it — Beyoncé won her first Album of the Year Grammy at the Grammys 2025 for Cowboy Carter, and brought Blue Ivy onstage with her to accept the monumental award.
Despite being the most-nominated artist in Grammys history with a total of 99 nominations throughout her career, the Recording Academy has consistently failed to recognise Beyoncé's musical prowess and innovation in the Album of the Year category.
Plus the set list, in full.
Bey famously lost the award to Taylor Swift in 2010 (Fearless over I Am… Sasha Fierce), to Beck in 2015 (Morning Phase over her industry-changing self-titled Beyoncé), to Adele in 2017 (25 over Lemonade), and to Harry Styles in 2023 (Harry's House over Renaissance).
This win has been a long time coming; Beyoncé herself seemed to be processing its magnitude while accepting the award, bringing her daughter with her for support. Her husband Jay-Z watched and applauded proudly from the audience, toasting champagne in celebration with Taylor Swift one table over. (Just last year Jay-Z brought Blue Ivy onstage with him to accept the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award and simultaneously drag the Recording Academy for their inconsistencies and potential bias when it comes to awarding Beyoncé.)
“I just feel very full and very honoured," Bey said stoically while holding her first AOTY Grammy. "It’s been many many years, and I just want to thank the Grammys, every songwriter, every collaborator, every producer, all of the hard work. I want to dedicate to this to Ms. [Linda] Martell and I hope we just keep pushing forward, opening doors. God bless y’all, thank you so much.
Blue Ivy then hugged her mum in a sweet embrace that seemed to trigger more emotions in the “16 Carriages” singer. Beyoncé's first Album of the Year win is divinely timed: the singer is fresh off the heels of Beyoncé Bowl, her successful Netflix NFL halftime special, and she just announced the 2025 Cowboy Carter Tour the evening before the Grammys.
It's very likely that Blue Ivy will be making many more appearances on the Cowboy Carter Tour after making her debut on the Renaissance World Tour in 2023 and performing at Bey's Dubai concert. The 13-year-old most recently danced in the Beyoncé Bowl special.
Bey's Cowboy Carter collaborator Shaboozey told E! News on the Grammys red carpet that Blue was extremely involved in the creative direction of Beyoncé Bowl. “Blue is giving notes. She’s a young director, young visionary, a young filmmaker,” Shaboozey said. “I can see it because I direct too, so when I saw her making shot ideas, making scene changes, it was so cool to see her being creative.”
Earlier in the evening, Blue's mom also won the awards for Best Country Duo/Group Performance with Miley Cyrus for “II Most Wanted” and Best Country Album. Taylor Swift presented the latter award to Bey, which she appeared genuinely shocked to receive. (The memes of her reaction are EVERYTHING.)
“I really was not expecting this. Wow," Beyoncé said while accepting Best Country Album. "I want to thank God that I’m still able to still do what I love after so many years. I’d like to thank all of the incredible country artists that accepted this album, we worked so hard on it. I think sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists, and I just want to encourage people to do what they’re passionate about and to stay persistent. I’d like to thank my beautiful family, all of the artists that were collaborators, thank you.”
Cowboy Carter's credits feature dozens of extremely talented collaborators, including The-Dream, Pharrell, NO I.D., Raphael Saadiq, Ryan Tedder, Ryan Beatty, Swizz Beatz, Khirye Tyler, Derek Dixie, Ink, Jay-Z, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Stevie Wonder, Chuck Berry, Mylie Cyrus, Post Malone, Jon Batiste, Rhiannon Giddens, Nile Rodgers, Robert Randolph, Gary Clark, Jr., Willie Jones, Brittney Spencer, Shaboozey, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, and Tiera Kennedy. Congratulations to all who contributed.
This article originally appeared on Teen Vogue.
