Whoopi Goldberg scolds conservatives complaining about Beyoncé winning Best Country Album at Grammys: ‘Sit down!’

Goldberg schooled Raymond Arroyo after the author appeared on Fox News to lament the fact that white singers had fewer Grammys than Beyoncé.

Beyonce; Whoopi Goldberg on The View

Beyoncé winning Best Country Album at Grammys; Whoopi Goldberg on ‘The View’. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty; ABC

The View moderator Whoopi Goldberg has had enough of conservatives crowing over Beyoncé winning Best Country Album at the Grammy Awards for her 2024 genre-hopping opus Cowboy Carter — and making history at Sunday’s ceremony as the first Black artist to win the award.

The Oscar-winning actress turned Tuesday’s Hot Topics table into a summit on setting the record straight when it comes to awards season facts, after she segued into a discussion about the Grammys by highlighting author Raymond Arroyo’s comments to Fox News in which he lamented Beyoncé having more overall Grammys than white artists like Dolly Parton (who’s featured on Cowboy Carter) and Frank Sinatra. He also chalked Beyoncé’s album success — which also led to her first-ever win for Album of the Year — up to a scenario where “Lady Gaga’s cat sitter votes for Best Reggae and Best Country Album.”

“Sir, are you aware that you have to be in the music industry to be a Grammy voter? So, the cat sitter can’t just vote,” Goldberg said, looking directly into the camera as she hit back at Arroyo’s complaint. “Are you aware that when the Grammys began in 1959, there were only 28 categories, now there are 94? The year that Frank Sinatra got six nominations despite having two No. 1 albums, he only won one Grammy that night for his album cover — not even for his singing, for the album cover. Listen, man. You can’t do that. She earned it.” (It should be noted that at the 1959 ceremony, Sinatra only received four nominations, not six, though he still only triumphed in one category: Best Recording Package.)

Goldberg, who previously served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Oscars’ Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, continued, criticizing Arroyo for holding “on to country music like white people didn’t also buy her country album” when Cowboy Carter was released in 2024.

“Come on, man! People voted for it. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. Same with the Oscars,” Goldberg said. “Sit down!”

Beyonce accepts the Best Country Album award for "COWBOY CARTER" onstage during the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Beyoncé at 2025 Grammys.Kevin Mazur/Getty

Outside of her victory for Best Country Album, Beyoncé’s first win for Album of the Year at Sunday’s Grammys also made her the first Black woman to win in the category since Lauryn Hill earned the award in 1999. Only two other Black women have won Album of the Year: Natalie Cole in 1992 and Whitney Houston in 1994.

Cowboy Carter led to a number of other firsts for Beyoncé, including the Destiny’s Child icon becoming the first Black woman to top Billboard‘s country chart with the album’s lead single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which also reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 shortly after its release.

Beyoncé faced a great deal of pushback from country traditionalists as well, including some country radio stations initially refusing to play material from the album, before it was entirely shut out among the CMA Awards nominations.