Mathew Knowles blames label for Beyoncé’s Album of the Year snubs at Grammys

Beyoncé’s father and former manager has claimed that it may be the singer’s label that has prevented her from winning Album Of The Year at the Grammys.

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The legendary singer currently holds the titles of the most-nominated artist and most-awarded artist in Grammy history – racking up an impressive 88 nominations and 32 wins across her career.

However, during this time she has never taken home the award for Album Of The Year – despite being nominated various times with her 2008 album ‘I Am… Sasha Fierce’, 2013’s self-titled, 2016’s ‘Lemonade’ and her most recent LP ‘Renaissance’.

Now, Mathew Knowles – her father and ex-manager – has said that he thinks the singer’s label may be to blame for the snubs.

Speaking in a new interview with TMZ Live yesterday (February 5), Knowles said that the reason why Beyoncé hasn’t won the award is more because of her label, Columbia, than it is to do with the voters at The Recording Academy.

“People don’t know the process. Your record label can only appoint one person in a category. So that means her record label—I’m gonna call you out, Columbia Records—her record label has never really put her in that category for consideration,” he told the outlet.

He also went on to use the 2017 Grammys ceremony as an example – suggesting that Adele, who is also signed to Columbia, may have been pushed ahead of Beyoncé when the two went head to head with their respective albums ‘25’ and ‘Lemonade’.

“I mean, there’s a financial reason. Maybe Adele sold more records worldwide? I don’t know these answers,” he said, exploring the potential reasons why Adele went home with the trophy. “But these are some of the thought processes that they go through. Maybe you say, ‘You know, Beyoncé has her success. Here’s an opportunity to push Adele, so let’s push her.’”

“I’ve been 14 years in those rooms supporting the label. I know exactly how this works,” he added.

Harry Styles, who is also signed to the record label, went on to beat Beyoncé’s latest ‘Renaissance’ album with his third LP ‘Harry’s House’.

Mathew Knowles’ comments aren’t the first time that someone close to the singer has publicly acknowledged the fact that Bey has never secured the Album Of The Year award at the Grammys.

At the 2024 edition of the ceremony, held on Sunday (February 4), Jay-Z called out the Recording Academy for not awarding her with the honour while accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.

“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So even by your own metrics that doesn’t work. Think about that. Most Grammys, never won Album of the Year, that doesn’t work,” he said.

“We want y’all to get it right,” he added. “We love y’all, we love y’all. … We want y’all to get it right. At least get it close to right. And obviously, it’s subjective…because it’s music and it’s opinion-based.”

This year, Taylor Swift was named as having the Album Of The Year with her ‘Midnights’ album. Now with four of the trophies to her name, she has become the all-time leader in Album Of The Year wins, setting a new record. She was previously tied for three wins alongside Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Frank Sinatra.

In other Beyoncé news, the artist’s groundbreaking tour recently grossed over $579million (approximately £454million), making it the second highest-grossing tour ever by a female artist. The only woman to surpass this figure is Taylor Swift, with her current ‘Eras’ tour named the highest-grossing tour of all time and the first ever to earn over $1billion.

Elsewhere, last month it was reported that Bey, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child fame recently reunited for a private one-off performance.