Beyoncé may have been snubbed from this year’s CMA Awards but the artists there had so much love to give her.
Despite her popular country music album, Cowboy Carter not receiving any nods, many of her friends, collaborators and contemporary artists had nothing but praise for the Single Ladies hitmaker.
One of the singers was none other than, rising star Shaboozey, who was nominated in the category of best new artist.
Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, the 29-year-old singer said, “It’s awesome, she threw me the alley-oop and I went up there and tried to windmill that thang,” using a basketball reference to explain how his feature on Beyoncé’s album, garnered him fame.
After his collaboration on the songs, Spaghettii and Sweet Honey Buckin‘, his own single, A Bar Song (Tipsy) climbed on the top of the music charts becoming the longest-running No. 1 hit on The Billboard Hot 100.
Describing his career this year, Shaboozey mentioned that it has been “never-ending. I love it. It feels like it’s been like 10 years but it’s only been a couple months. We dropped our song half way through the year and it’s still going.”
Additionally, talking about blending different genres with country music, he mentioned, “I feel like I’m just being myself,” he said. “I don’t really think about it like, ‘This is going to change the game.’ I just make the music that’s true to me and authentic to my experiences. They say country music is three chords and the truth and I love speaking the truth over three chords, or more.”