Beyoncé finally got her Grammy for album of the year.
After losing the prestigious category four times, the music superstar came out victorious during Sunday’s 2025 ceremony, becoming the first black woman to receive the award since Lauryn Hill in 1999.
Beyoncé’s country record, “Cowboy Carter,” beat out Billie Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” Charli XCX’s “Brat,” Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet,” André 3000’s “New Blue Sun” and Jacob Collier’s “Djesse Vol. 4.”
“I just feel very full and very honored. It’s been many, many years, and I just want to thank the Grammys, every songwriter, every collaborator, every producer,” she said onstage alongside her 13-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, as Eilish and Lady Gaga cried tears of joy in the audience.
Getty Images for The Recording Academy
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While the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer, 43, is the most-awarded artist in Grammy history with 35 career wins, this marks the first time she has taken home album of the year.
She was previously up for 2008’s “I Am… Sasha Fierce,” 2013’s “Beyoncé,” 2016’s “Lemonade” and 2022’s “Renaissance,” but lost to Taylor Swift, Beck, Adele and Harry Styles, respectively.
During the 2024 show, Jay-Z brazenly called out the Recording Academy for having never recognized his wife with a golden gramophone in the category.
“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year,” the “Empire State of Mind rapper said onstage while looking at Beyoncé in the audience.
“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.”
Notably, Queen Bey herself addressed her album of the year snubs on “Cowboy Carter,” which she is taking on tour this summer.
