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Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter win for Best Country Album and Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammy Awards has drawn flak - but some celebrities are speaking out in her defense.
One of those people is Whoopi Goldberg, who on the Tuesday, February 4 edition of The View reacted strongly to a clip from The Ingraham Angle on Fox. In the clip, author Raymond Arroyo took issue with Queen Bee, saying, "Dolly Parton has 10 Grammys, Frank Sinatra has 11 Grammys. Beyoncé has 35. How is that possibly commensurate with that talent?" Arroyo argued.
"What people don't know about the Grammys is everybody votes in every genre," Arroyo continued. "So basically, Lady Gaga's cat sitter votes for Best Reggae and Best Country Album, so that's why you get this ridiculous outcome that has nothing to do with the country audience."
Goldberg fired back when the clip concluded.
"Sir, are you aware that you have to be in the music industry to be a Grammy voter, so the cat sitter cannot just vote?" Goldberg said. She went on to explain how the Grammys have expanded their categories and broadened their voting base in an effort to become more inclusive.
"Listen man, you can't do that. She earned it," Goldberg said. "You want to hold onto country music, like white people didn't also buy her country album. Come on, man. People voted for it. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you don't!"
The View panelist Sara Haines backed up Goldberg's assertions. She referenced a Ken Burns documentary that claimed country music is an amalgam of Irish music and the sounds created by freed slaves.
"Country music was made by everyone for everyone, and it was of the people. So it's very ignorant, and it screams of that," Haines said.
Fellow co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin defended the artist's right to experiment: "Beyoncé was already the most-decorated artist at the Grammys since 2023. This isn't somebody who is just getting praised for one album in this one moment."
Finally, Sunny Hostin put a fine point to things. "Country music is very much Black music," she said. "It's very much American music. The fact that she's from Houston, Texas, and grew up on country music makes it all the more appropriate for her to be a country music singer."
"Guess who else loved Cowboy Carter?" Griffin added. "Dolly Parton!"
Goldberg rested the defense. "Music doesn't have the issues you have. Music about the people," she said. "We like what we like.... Please don't try to make music about 'us and them.' It's all us."