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Shaboozey's appearance at the 2025 American Music Awards has gone viral after he appeared to laugh at a comment made by Megan Moroney while the pair were presenting an award together.
The two country singers stepped on stage at Monday night's ceremony in Las Vegas to present the Favorite Country Duo or Group category. Shaboozey spoke first, explaining to the audience that country music has long been a part of AMAs history. It was Charley Pride, he said, that first won Favorite Male Country Artist back in 1974.
It was then Moroney's turn to speak, “That same year, Favorite Female Artist went to Lynn Anderson, and this award [Favorite Country Duo or Group] went to the Carter family, who basically invented country music,” she said.
Shaboozey appeared to do a double take in Moroney's direction and let out a laugh before continuing to present the nominees in the category, which was given to Dan and Shay.
During the broadcast the exchange was but a minor detail, but online, that moment took off as people honed in on Shaboozey's double-take and interpreted it as disappointment about the inaccuracy of Moroney's line positing that the Carter family "basically invented country music."
Of course, the Carter Family — the multi-generational folk group known for songs including “Can the Circle Be Unbroken” and “Wildwood Flower,” and whose most famous member, June Carter, went on to marry Johnny Cash — has had a massive influence on country music. But as fans pointed out online, it feels inaccurate to say they "invented country music." For many, Moroney's throwaway comment came across as a continuation of the country music industry's historical erasure of the legacy Black musicians had on country music. (It's unclear if Moroney read the line from the teleprompter or if it was improvised by her in the moment.) And Shaboozey's live reaction managed to express all of that in just one look.
Shaboozey later seemed to reinforce this interpretation with his own tweet about the matter on X: “When you uncover the true history of country music, you find a story so powerful that it cannot be erased…" he wrote on Monday morning.
The sidelining of country music's Black roots is an age-old problem that the industry has had to grapple with a lot in recent years. The topic was pushed to the forefront in 2024 around Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter record, an album that saw the pop star reclaim the history of country music and shine a light on the many Black musicians and artists that shaped the genre.
In past interviews, Shaboozey himself has paid homage to the ways Black musicians shaped country music: "I think there’s the folk tales, the storytelling aspect that you see in Western African music that’s also a very big part of country music,” he told Los Angeles Times in 2024. “Obviously the banjo’s got African roots too. Country music came from people in the South and Appalachia, slaves and indentured servants from Europe, each gathering and trading stories.”
Jennifer Lopez hosted the 2025 AMAs this year. Other winners on the night included Eminem (Favorite Male Hip-Hop Artist and Favorite Hip-Hop Album) and Billie Eilish, who won all seven of her categories, including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year,
A previous version of this story misinterpreted the meaning behind Shaboozey's laugh during the 2025 American Music Awards. This article has been updated to correct the error.