Shaboozey Side-Eyes Megan Moroney at AMAs Over Country Music Inventor Claim

There’s been a long-standing debate about where country music actually comes from. While the genre is seen as predominantly white, history has helped set the record straight. As it turns out, country music was actually started by Black people, not white. According to musician and performance artist Queen Esther, and plenty of other sources, including Time, much of American music is deeply rooted in West African traditions and the blues. That includes bluegrass and country.

So when Megan Moroney credited the Carter Family with basically inventing country music during her presenting stint at the 2025 American Music Awards, it caught a lot of people off guard, including her co-presenter, Shaboozey, who gave her an immediate side-eye that said exactly what he was thinking.

Here’s the scoop on the awkward AMA moment, and more on that family she was so quick to praise for "inventing" country music.

The 2025 AMAs were quite the big event, as they always are, recognizing the year’s top musical achievements across all genres. Needless to say, if you're relevant in music, you're there.

But an awkward moment came out of it when country music artists Megan Moroney and Shaboozey took the stage to present the award for Favorite Country Duo or Group. Shaboozey started by explaining the role country music has played in AMA history, and the two went on to name a few past winners.

Shaboozey mentioned the first male winner, and Megan followed up with the female winner and then came the comment that caught everyone off guard. She said, "And this award went to the Carter Family, who basically invented country music."

Shaboozey instantly hit her with a side-eye, which led to an awkward pause, and then a quick laugh from him to brush it off. From there, they shifted their focus to the nominees in line to potentially take home the 2025 award.

Given the clear evidence showing the role Black culture played in shaping country music, and that white people didn’t actually invent it, the comment threw plenty of people for a loop. Shaboozey simply couldn’t look past it, which is why he gave Megan that side-eye.

To her credit, she was reading off a teleprompter and probably didn’t write the lines herself. It also seems like the reference to the Carter Family "basically inventing country music" was meant to highlight their influence and role in the genre.

Still, it was a pretty bold statement for the AMAs, especially since it can come off like shifting credit away from an entire culture, something that might go unnoticed by folks who don’t fact-check and just take things at face value.

When Megan said the Carter Family "basically invented country music," it got plenty of criticism from viewers, and from Shaboozey, judging by the side-eye he gave her. But she wasn’t talking about Jay-Z and his family. She was actually talking about a famous musical group that consisted of three members: A.P. Carter, Sara Carter, and Maybelle Carter, who were dubbed "The First Family of Country Music."

According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, they "invented the kind of harmony singing used for years" and made a bunch of songs that set standards in the genre. Simply put, they had a major influence on the genre, but they didn’t invent it.