Lil Nas X first openly gay man nominated for Country Music Award

Source: Noam Galai / Getty

Lil Nas X First Openly Gay Artist Nominated For CMA

My, my, how the tables have turned.

Earlier this summer there was righteous indignation that Lil Nas X’s record-breaking single “Old Town Road” was removed from the Billboard charts because it “didn’t have enough country elements”. Fast forward 90 days and the upstart Atlanta rapper has the biggest song in music history and is now nominated for a Country Music Award.

The proverbial cherry on top is the fact that according to Advocate, Lil Nas X is the very first openly gay artist to receive a CMA nomination. Looks like hip-hop culture is significantly more progressive than the country folks and while that shouldn’t come as a surprise, the narrative surrounding homophobia in rap music would lead one to believe that Black folks are sole enemy of the LGBT community, but we digress.

Lil Nas X’s and Billy Ray Cyrus have been nominated for Musical Event Of The Year. We’re not very familiar with their competition, but when you have the certified longest standing Billboard #1 in music history, who is REALLY f**kin’ with you?

“Old Town Road” will compete with Maren Morris’s “All My Favorite People,” Brooks & Dunn’s “Brand New Man,” Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton’s “Dive Bar,” and Brantley Gilbert and Lindsay Ell’s “What Happens in a Small Town.”

“Old Town Road” should be the prohibitive favorite to take home the statue. But we wouldn’t put it past the lily-white crowd to hate.

Fingers crossed!