It’s fair to assume that Beyoncé was not expecting to pick up the Best Country Album prize during Sunday night’s Grammys ceremony.

Last year, Bey made her first major foray into country music with her eighth album Cowboy Carter, which went on to make her the most-nominated artist at this year’s Grammy Awards.

During the live broadcast, Taylor Swift arrived on stage to present the award for Best Country Album, where the Texas Hold ’Em singer faced stiff competition from some big players from the country genre, including Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson and Kacey Musgraves.

And when Taylor announced that Cowboy Carter had picked up the accolade – making her the first Black artist to win the award in Grammys history – let’s just say that the music icon was taken a little off guard.

Stating the obvious, Bey began her acceptance speech by telling the crowd she was “not expecting this”.

“I want to thank God that I’m able to still do what I love after so many years – oh, my God!” she enthused. “I’d like to thank all of the incredible country artists that accepted this album we worked so hard on.”

Bey added: “I think sometimes genre is a cold word to keep us in our place as artists. I just want to encourage people to do what they’re passionate about. And to stay persistent.”

The former Destiny’s Child singer first dipped her toe into the world of country back in 2016, on the Lemonade cut Daddy Lessons.

She then performed the song with country icons The Chicks at the Country Music Awards that same year, although it was noted at the time that Bey didn’t exactly receive a warm response from some members of the audience.

While she never addressed this explicitly, the record-breaking singer has claimed in the past that Cowboy Carter was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed… and it was very clear that I wasn’t”.

“Because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive,” she explained when the album premiered last year.

Cowboy Carter features contributions from country icons including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Linda Martell.