Kacey Musgraves Claps Back at Grammys After Country Album Controversy

Kacey Musgraves is firing back at the Grammys after the awards show decided to exclude her current album, Star-Crossed, from consideration in the Best Country Album category in the upcoming 2022 Grammy Awards.

The country and pop superstar is using pictures to build a pretty convincing case that she's still as country as she ever was.

Billboard reported in early October that the Recording Academy's screening committee decided that Musgraves' new album does not fit into the country genre enough to qualify for consideration for Best Country Album. The album leans toward a lush, sweeping cinematic pop sound, but Musgraves' previous album — 2018's Golden Hour — was also a turn away from country and into pop, and it won Best Country Album in the 2019 Grammy Awards, as well as the all-genre Album of the Year award.

Musgraves turned to Twitter to subtly shade the Recording Academy's decision on Wednesday (Oct. 13), posting an old picture of herself from her youthful days on the Texas country circuit. She's wearing an enormous cowboy hat and smiling in the sweet photo, which she captions, "You can take the girl out of the country (genre) but you can’t take the country out of the girl."

Musgraves continued to humorously rebut the Grammys' decision with multiple posts to her Instagram Story, subsequently posting pictures showing her with country legends including Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap, Shania Twain, George Strait, Pam Tillis, Martina McBride, Alan Jackson, Kris Kristofferson, Lee Ann Womack and Brooks & Dunn.

She ends the string of photos with a humorous shot of herself on stage shooting the finger with both hands in a defiant final message to the Grammys for their decision.

Musgraves released Star-Crossed on Sept. 10. She is slated to promote the album on her 2022 Star-Crossed: Unveiled Tour, which is set to launch in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan.  19.