Hannah Dasher told us how she really felt about Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter.

The talented and bubbly country artist stopped by the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast to talk about how her presence on TikTok, her cooking show that has helped fans discover her music, the struggles of being a fully independent artist, what it’s like to be a woman in the industry and much more.

A portion of that “much more” ended up being her thoughts on Beyoncé entering into the country music genre. The pop star’s dip into the country world has stirred up a lot of conversation, and country artists themselves are divided on the matter. Some artists say that they loved it, while others are quick to call Cowboy Carter disingenuous.

As you know, Beyoncé released her “country album” Cowboy Carter (that she clarified “wasn’t a country album”) back in March of 2024. It was certainly a cultural moment, and one could argue that it was successful out of the gate. But after its initial release, it really lacked the staying power on the Billboard charts that you would expect from someone as big as Beyoncé.

Then, after it failed to be nominated at many of last year’s country music award shows, it seemed like the “country era” of Queen Bey was all but over with. However, Beyoncé then scored plenty of Grammy nominations for the project (or course), totaling 11 different nominations including “Best Country Album” and “Album of the Year.” The 43-year-old artist ended up taking home both of those awards and one other, bringing Beyoncé’s total Grammy Awards won up to 35 – the most of any artist in history.

That’s certainly an accomplishment, but it’s not enough to change Hannah Dasher’s mind about it. In Dasher’s opinion, the independent country music artist that has fought to earn her place in Nashville thinks that Beyoncé mailed it in with her attempt at a country music record, and wishes that the pop star would have done things differently:

“As far as the Beyoncé thing, I think she’s a queen. I think she’s incredibly gifted. Obviously, (Cowboy Carter) wasn’t a country record. If she really wanted to fool us into believing that she wanted to pay homage to our genre, then she would have done something like Ray Charles did in 1963 with ‘Modern Sounds in Country Music.’ I would have loved to see her record an old Tammy Wynette song to really do it justice. And to include more songwriters, not just black artists and black songwriters, can I be honest? I think there were a couple of us pales skins on there.”

And Dasher isn’t alone in feeling that way. Many had no issue with Beyoncé coming into country music and dropping an album… as long as her project was actually country music. I don’t think anyone would listen to Cowboy Carter and suggest that it fits underneath the country umbrella. It’s just dressed up like it’s supposed to.

That’s the main problem that Hannah Dasher had with Beyoncé’s controversial entrant into the country music world:

“It was obviously an agenda and a mission, not to take away from Tiera and artists like that, and I’m grateful from the huge moments they’ve gotten from that, but obviously it wasn’t genuine and I wish she would have paid homage and actually put out a country record because I would have bought that. I would have bought 10 copies of that. It would have done even better. She just took advantage of an algorithm. That’s not art. That’s just a quick grab to make some money and I don’t think that deserves any kind of award.”