Shaboozey was on a high coming into the 2024 CMA Awards, having received two nods in his debut year as a nominee and a performance slot to showcase a mix of his breakthrough hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and his recent single “Highway. ” But what should have been a night of celebrating country — a genre in which the 29-year-old musician has been a history-making force for the duration of the year — was plagued by microaggressions being played off as jokes.
Shaboozey didn't get the chance to take the stage in acceptance of either of his nods — New Artist of the Year or Single of the Year — but the singer-songwriter was offhandedly mentioned in the winning speech from a category he wasn't even nominated in.
When Cody Johnson took the stage to accept the Album of the Year trophy for his record Leatherhis producer Trent Willmon approached the microphone with a dull joke, quipping: “I got to tell you, this is for this cowboy who's been kicking Shaboozey for a lot of years.” Social media users have noted that Willmon could have simply been making a play on the phrase “kicking booty.” However, that doesn't necessarily explain why he felt comfortable playing word games with the name of one of the night's two nominated Black acts.
Shaboozey was born Collins Obinna Chibueze to Nigerian immigrant parents. Growing up in Woodbridge, Virginia, he obtained his nickname-turned-stage name from a high-school football coach who couldn't (or wouldn't) properly pronounce his surname. “Hearing your name [mispronounced] during attendance was always a thing; you felt like you had to make it easier for everyone else to understand,” Shaboozey told Billboard earlier this year. Willmon's unprovoked jab at the artist highlights the unfortunate normalization of Black culture being diluted in order to make it more accessible to people who won't make a conscious effort to learn anything about it.
In the particular instance of the CMA Awards, poking fun at Shaboozey's name had been normalized all night. During the opening monologue, co-host Peyton Manning followed from one sentence into another using the exclamation “Holy Shaboozey!” as a bridge between the two. Then, co-host Luke Bryan riffed on the success of “A Bar Song,” joking: “In Nashville, that's what we call a Sha-doozey.” Manning promptly, and fittingly, responded: “That does not sound right at all.” Notably, each artist mentioned in the segment was shown on camera in the audience moments later. Shaboozey was not.
Later in the night, while introducing Shaboozey ahead of his performance, Bryan made another off-hand remark. Manning had just mentioned the reign “A Bar Song” has experienced at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, where it has spent 17 nonconsecutive weeks, when the artist added: “His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Shaboozey, must be so proud .”
They have every right to be. Shaboozey kicked off his year with two featured appearances on Beyoncé's Cowboy Carteran esteemed celebration of Black country musicians and their oft-buried history that was notably not nominated at the CMA Awards. Then came “A Bar Song,” which dethroned Beyoncé's “Texas Hold 'Em” at Number One on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. It marked the first time two Black artists have held the position consecutively.
And earlier this month, Shaboozey scored six nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards including Song of the Year, Best Country Song, and Best Country Solo Performance for “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” He's also up for Best New Artist and Best Melodic Rap Performance alongside Beyoncé and country pioneer Linda Martell for “Spaghettii.”
Shortly after the show ended, Shaboozey posted a photo on X (formerly Twitter) in which he's pictured shrugged off Willmon's comment with a smile on his face. The caption read: “Ain't nobody kicking me!”
That Shaboozey lost out on both of his CMA Awards nominations does nothing to detract from the blockbuster year he's had. He walked in a winner. And the poorly written remarks that the hosts read off of a teleprompter don't change that. But his first year at the show should have opened the door for him to be welcomed. Instead, it was arguably slammed in his face.
This comes in the same year that the War and Treaty, the only other Black act nominated at the 2024 CMA Awards, raised attention about a cotton plant being placed in their dressing room at the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Festival in Austin. The organizers played it off as an “honest mistake,” just as many viewers who are unfamiliar with being on the receiving end of glaring microaggressions might play off the Shaboozey name twists as simple jokes. That Black artists are expected to conform and continuously subject themselves to such hostile environments under the guise of participating in community is totally unfair.
When Beyoncé was shut out of the CMA Awards nominations, Shaboozey came to her defense, posting: “That goes without saying. Thank you Beyonce for opening a door for us, starting a conversation, and giving us one of the most innovative country albums of all time!” Meanwhile, artists like Bryan suggested that Beyoncé simply didn't integrate herself into the country community enough.
“Everybody loved that Beyoncé made a country album. Nobody's mad about it,” he said at the time. “But where things get a little tricky — if you're gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit. Like, Beyoncé can do exactly what she wants to. She's probably the biggest star in music. But come to an award show and high-five us and have fun and get in the family, too. And I'm not saying she didn't do that … but country music is a lot about family.”
The suggestion that she “come to an award show” is laughable when placed beside the fact that her own experience with racism at the CMA Awards in 2016 is what inspired her to create Cowboy Carter in the first place. But what about Shaboozey? He played the game. He came to the award show. And yet, he was treated with a fraction of the honor and respect granted even to artists like Post Malone, who is a guest in the genre after jumping from rap to pop to country over the course of the past decade.
Why would anyone want to be part of that community? Shaboozey deserves more than what the CMA Awards gave him on Wednesday night. In fact, he deserves an apology.
