Kacey Musgraves has blasted the Grammy Awards for ruling her new album ineligible for the Best Country Album prize.

Kacey Musgraves

Kacey Musgraves

The 33-year-old singer's latest record 'star-crossed' won't be on the shortlist in the country category for next year's ceremony, and she has hit out at the decision.

She wrote on social media: "You can take the girl out of the country (genre) but you can't take the country out of the girl."

She also shared a photo of herself as a child in a pink cowboy hat, as well as snaps with country legends like Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, George Strait and more.

She captioned one: "Ain't that right, Loretta Lynn?"

And alongside picture with the 'Jolene' hitmaker, she added: "What about you, Dolly?"

Kacey's 2018 record 'Golden Hour' won both the all-genre and country album of the year Grammys, while the LP's tracks 'Butterflies' and 'Space Cowboy' were honoured in country categories.

She also won best country album in 2014 for 'Same Trailer' Different Park', and collaborated with 'Golden Hour' co-writers and co-producers Daniel Tashian on 'star-crossed'.

This week, Cindy Mabe - president of UMG Nashville - also hit out at the Recording Academy over the country genre screening committee's decision.

In a letter published by Billboard, she said: "Sonically, it’s got more country instrumentation than Golden Hour which won Country Album of the Year in 2019.

"To compare 'Golden Hour' to 'star-crossed', both albums were produced by Ian Fitchuk, Daniel Tashian and Kacey Musgraves. Both albums were mixed by Shawn Everett."

She added: "Both albums complete each other with 'Golden Hour' telling the story of falling in love and 'star-crossed' telling the conclusion of the breakup. There is no departure in sound from these two projects.

"This album was consistently classified as country throughout it’s metadata and overall labeling across the DSP accounts and partners. star-crossed appeared on every major country playlist of every DSP. (sic)"

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