True story: there are a few songs on Beyonce’s Lemonade that I don’t care for. I thought “Daddy Lessons” was one of them. But then Bey performed the song with the Dixie Chicks on last night’s CMAs and now… I like the song? It’s weird how a really great live performance can change your mind about a song. Anyway, as I’m sure everyone knows by now, Beyonce came to SLAY the Country Music Awards in Nashville last night. The big thing was supposed to be whether Taylor Swift would show up in some way (she did), but by Wednesday, everyone was just obsessing about what Beyonce was going to do. And what did she do? Slayed with the other Texas ladies, The Dixie Chicks. Here’s the video:
Watch Beyoncé's performance of 'Daddy Lessons' @The Country Music Awards with the The Dixie Chicks (Full) pic.twitter.com/Bga48gmq6B
— Beyoncé Titan (@BeyonceTitan) November 3, 2016
The point of this is that Beyonce has country influences too. The point is that country music and the blues (pioneered by African-Americans) have the same roots. The point is that Beyonce belongs on every stage, no matter if it’s the Grammys, the VMAs or the CMAs. And the point is also that Beyonce had to come to the CMAs to show the country music performers how to properly rehearse for a live performance, because hand to God, Bey and the Dixie Chicks sounded the best. I watched some of the show and the sound quality and preparation was really “off” for several artists.
(Incidentally, Beyonce’s performance dress was J’Aton and her press room dress was Zuhair Murad. I love her and everything but I feel like she’s worn these dresses a million times. She’s not a style icon. That’s not her thing.)
Also: there were a lot of butthurt country music fans who really didn’t like it that Beyonce (or any black performer) would appear on “their” music show. While the comments online were overwhelmingly positive, there were some people who decided to label Beyonce “anti-police trash” and more.
Why the heck is Beyonce performing on the CMA's!? #youcantsitwithus #shedoesntevengohere #CMAawards50
— Courtney Ostrowski (@courtostrowski) November 3, 2016
I don't understand why people are getting so pissed over OUR opinions on Beyoncé being at the CMA's 😴 I mean it's COUNTRY not R&B awards
— maaayy (@mayleeennn) November 3, 2016
Omg what's this crap about Beyoncé performing at the CMA's? Um no? Go away? Go back to your own genre? Thanks?
— Katie Joy⭐️ (@Katie_Karvinen_) November 2, 2016
#Boycott @CMA since it wants to have a cop hater like @Beyonce on our country music show. She's not ruining our music.
— Barbara Platt (@blp3) November 3, 2016
PLEASE go read all the white people's ratings on CMA page about "racist police hating" Beyonce's performance OMG pic.twitter.com/lQgBLVuaAJ
— Bad Hombre (@lyndsaycarreno) November 3, 2016
Photos courtesy of Getty, Instagram.
I wish she performed Formation and then asked them to vote Hillary at the end….. all the white tears.
Lol. She wasn’t trying to get herself killed, but damn that would have been hilarious.
BWWAAHAHAHAHAHAH PAY ME FOR THIS COFFEE!!!
Look at the Butthurtness! all the while she is prospering and damned near doing what evelyn from the internets called the day after Lemonade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NI3ZjcLbe8
Fun Fact
Whlst country music definitely has it roots in Irish /Scottish Folk music, one of the things that gave early American country music its distinct sound was the Banjo which is an African Instrument that the slaves used to use when they were mandated to entertain their masters.
Also poor whites and blacks used to work side by side in the fields in the south and sometimes used to play music together as well and that influence is seen in blue grass , C W and Rock
Over time (like a lot of things ) the African Banjo became co-opted as “white ” but the only instrument used in CW that came from Scottish/Irish Folk was the fiddle
thank you for sharing that
thanks for the info! How interesting!
Give a listen to the Carolina Chocolate Drops. They’re great.
I love the Chocolate Drops too! Not only are they great entertainers, but they’re scholars and educators as well.
LMFAO!
I loved the idea of Beyonce’ coming on stage to sing HER song, just in case anyone was confused about whose it was when they were singing along to Dixie Chicks.
I like to think it was a plot. The Dixie Chicks were in on it and they’re getting a little back after that George Bush bullshit a few years ago.
I heard the Dixie Chicks version of Daddy Issues almost immediately after Lemonade was released and was impressed by how great it was! This was a treat! I think you have to be in a certain mood for blues-influenced music and sometimes that one song feels a bit out of place on Lemonade, though in isolation it’s a great song.
And yes, to underline your point, Beyonce was performing her OWN country-genre song from her own album at the CMAs, so people being butthurt over it are being some version of racist and/or disrespectful. Police-hating, my butt. A song ending with the message “stop killing us” does not translate to police hatred.
Absolutely a plot. The Dixie Chicks have been performing and covering Daddy Issues since Lemonade came out while they were on tour. They love Bey and respect her. This was a great performance. The Dixie Chicks don’t GAF.
lolololol, I totally agree
Wow All the hate for Beyonce calling her a racist “Police Hater” Welcome to Trump’s America. Disgusting.
Yes because pointing out the fact that cowardly bad cops are murdering Black Americans in cold blood is “racist” and “anti-cops”. Black people should just put their hands in the air with a big smile and take it, hey it’s just like when they were being lynched. Nothing new here.
Not a Beyoncé fangirl but I’m so proud of her for bringing BLM to entertainment and showing up at the CMA’s.
Same! I LOVE that she performed up at the CMAs, in some ways the belly of the beast. The only thing that could’ve made it better is if she’d performed Formation HAH!
What could have really made it better if Jay-Z came out t join her and performed N–gas in Paris but changed it to N–gas in Country. “That shit crazy.”
Also let’s remember Jessie J and Ariana Grande got no love either when they performed Bang Bang with Little Big Town.
Ms. Tina choose this dress? Cause it’s tacky af.
It’s way over the top for the event. Those tweets are really nasty though. Musical apartheid.
Yup. She looks like she should be in Europe at an avant-garde fashion show. Totally OTT and too revealing for the CMAs. But awesome performance on all fronts!
Annetommy musical apartheid is right. And these are the SAME people who will fix their mouths and say that BET is racist. The cognitive dissonance is baffling.
The dress was beyond bad and I wonder if this was a major contributor to why I found the whole thing cringe.
I didn’t even like her dancing. I felt embarrassed watching her.
I love all Bey/ LOVE. But this wasn’t slaying for me
I heard she wore it because female performers at the cmas used to wear gowns back in the days when they performed and it was a nod to them.
Tweets like these make me so frustrated, even desperate. Why do people feel so much hate? Why do they believe criticizing existing racism within the police force means your are hating on the police force? Criticsim and hate are two very different things.
Now I go back to cry about humanity.
They tend to be the same people who don’t believe racism exists, or worse, believe that PoC get “preferential treatment” because of affirmative action. They’re people whose interactions with law enforcement–if they’ve had any–have been relatively pleasant, so they sincerely believe that PoC would be fine if they just had more respect for the cops. They don’t understand the very real and founded fear that anyone who isn’t white has of the cops, because it doesn’t fit in with their worldview. There’s no recognition of institutionalized racism, such as de facto segregation, because since the law makes everyone equal, we’re obviously all equal now.
@raptor,
Or that there are a limited amount of ‘rights’ and if gays, POC, and women get their ‘rights’ that means they’ll lose theirs. Hand to god, that’s how they think.
@Raptor
Perfectly said!
Amen to all of this. I loved that Beyonce slayed last night and I really love that she brought out the Dixie Chicks, who got such hate from the Trump segment of America. It was like a giant FU to all the haters that are out there these days. Now I just hope one more woman can give the biggest FU to the haters next Tuesday night!!!
“She’s not ruining our music”? WTF. Whos’ music? That song was 100% country to me.
Great performance, and I’m not even a huge fan.
Trump’s america is scary AF
Funny, and here I was, thinking that Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan and all the other “Bros” had “ruined country music” already…
Bro country is the devil. Conway Twitty and George Jones were my first concert at 8. I’ll take that any day over Florida Georgia bullcrap
They have.
ncboudicca, you are 100% correct!
Cause there are no black musicians who play ‘country’ music? Like Lighting Hopkins, Son House, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Charlie Patton, ad infinitum. One of the greatest gifts to the world is American music – a glorious mashup of African, Celtic and various other influences into something unique and extraordinary. There is no American music form that is not influenced, either directly or indirectly, by African American musicians and composers.
Don’t forget Ray Charles! He released a country album in the early 60s 🙂
That is the only “country” song on Lemonade and they killed it last night. Dixie Chicks have the sass to slay, right along with Queen B.
They tore it up! I loved it.
I was excited when I found out she was performing and then she performed and it was kinda of a let down. I know not many people probably agree with this but it felt like it had been hyped up so much in the few hours before the show so I was expecting something epic and then it wasn’t.
I think her performance was great and she sounded great. She just put the umf in Country.
Really? I thought that whole performane was amazing.
The number one beyonce hater Tomi Lauren was of course tweeting about Beyonce too. It was so funny to see all these country fans boycotting the CMAs because Beyonce was performing and them tweeting that they didn’t see a “white artist performing at their shows!” Which isn’t even true since white artists perform at the BET awards all the time (which is what I believe they were trying to get at).
Beyonce was 10000000 times better than the other performers yesterday and the Dixie Chicks said that they always said they never would’ve performed at the CMAs again if it hadn’t been for Beyonce
Of course, most of the country was unintentionally boycotting them since we had a MAJOR SPORTS EVENT on…
YEA CUBBIES!!
But they’d have to watch the BET awards to actually know that.
Great performance as usual.
And yes, she Is a style icon. Were the Carter-Knowles Halloween costumes covered on here? Best of 2016.
Obviously racist comments. Current country music is a lot closer to pop than traditional country. Daddy Lessons is more country than what is on the radio. A lot of pop artists have performed on country award shows. Don’t think anybody complained about Justin Timberlake last year. I only watched some of the awards but I wonder if anybody complained about Ellie King performing. I’m actually more surprised about the Dixie Chicks performing based on their history.
Beyoncé and Dixie Chicks had the best performance of the night, though Miranda Lambert was a close second.
Have to agree that I’m more surprised the Dixie Chicks performed than Beyoncé, given that they were banished from country music for over a decade. I think it’s very telling that people on twitter reserved their hate for Beyoncé rather than the Dixie Chicks (who are also amazing).
I’m not a country fan, but when the Dixie Chicks were taking so much flak I bought one of their albums just because. I like a few of Beyoncé’s songs but am not a huge fan of hers either. This song blew me away! Great song, great performers! Anyone who could watch that and complain about it has no soul and no real appreciation for music. F them.
Yesterday in Nashville news, I drove past another confederate flag in someone’s yard on my way to get groceries. Then a few hours later, Beyoncé took the stage downtown, with the blessed Dixie Chicks no less, and my shriveled, hopeless heart came alive once more. Step down, you sexist, racist, poser, bro-country corporate hacks. And you too, Mr. KKK Charlie Daniels. The Queen has come to rescue Music, and the Dixie Chicks are going to help her get it done!!
People say so much about themselves when they are being churlish, don’t they?
Wow, people can be so painfully ignorant. Pointing out what’s wrong with police is not anti-cop, it’s anti killing innocent people. And I say this as a cops wife.
As a longtime Chicks fan I thought people would be more in a tizzy that they were invited back to the CMA stage after all these years.
I don’t recall if Darius Rucker ever received “go back where you came from” hate when he did the reverse country crossover. I guess black folk are welcome as long as they behave themselves?
Assuming many of the haters would call themselves Christians, I will paraphrase Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber: When you build a wall between yourself and someone else Jesus is always on the other side.
The show did open with country music legends/long-time Opry members, and Charlie Pride was prominently featured. So, I expect your point about “behaving” has some validity — it’s Beyoncé’s black lives matter stance that has the Trumpians up in arms. Please don’t apply the racist tag to all country music fans though.
Agreed. I love country and all sorts of music. As I said downthread, Charley Pride was featured from the very beginning. No one knows country truly and it’s history if the first thought is that it is racist.
Edit: Not to say that many, especially fans are racist hicks, but not all of us. Watch that doc Dave Grohl did last year for country history and its origins.
Just to be clear I wasn’t trying to imply that all country fans are rascist, at all! I live in Austin, which is full of hippie liberal country-loving folk, myself included. And I know we exist all over the country.
It is interesting (to me) to break down the hate. It’s not just racial. There’s definitely some misogyny there, too. Plus a general dislike of those who speak out about matters of social justice.
You are so right, I cried last night with this CMA bullcrap. I’m a hippie in the deep south, we don’t know how it happened!
I went on Fox and looked at the posts about the opening monologue by the hosts , and the good ol’ muricans were pretty vile over the CMA’s political jokes and their perception of love for Hillary. They were already fired up watching it. I’m sure Beyonce and the Dixie Chicks sent them over the edge
The CMA fans were Dead Sea Salty last night and Beyonce used that salt to exfoliate to a radiant complexion.
Seriously, how do none of them realise that Country is a genre partially pioneered by black people? Daddy Lessons (great with headphones) is faaaaaaaaar more country than anything Swift has sung on her last 2 bubble gum pop albums.
YES! I hated when she started getting pop and was still being honored for country awards. Um, no.
brilliant comment, ElleBee. people have no idea of cultural history and seriously? these Texas ladies wanted share a good time with people–they are artists and entertainers, why the hate? music is about coming TOGETHER. this country is wildly divided and nasty these days.
a poster above made such a beautiful point about poor white and black Americans working together in the fields. Country has deep African American roots as well as radically anarcho and dare i say it? socialist Marxist politics from the coal mining era and folk singers rallying the working poor to fight the corporate “man” into the 1940s. “Which side are you on, which side are you on?”
I thought it was great, why all the hate? I like country (old and now), I like rap, I like pop and jazz and blues…who says we all have to stay in our swim lanes? Geez.
The white twitterrers quoted? 😉 Yeah, it’s disgusting.
*deep and heavy sigh* re: the tweets.
It was a great performance! All the performers looked like they were having a lot of fun, and the audience seemed to love it, too.
These haters are the same assh@les that claim racism hasn’t existed since the 50’s. It’s terrible that these people have a platform for their hate.
More please! Dixie Chicks got a LOT of hate for their courageous stand against the Iraq invasion in 2003, so their appearance is meaningful on that level as well.
Tweep outrage is predictable and utterly banal.
Per Natalie Maines, Beyonce was the one who invited the Dixie Chicks to perform.
Indeed 🙂
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/11/03/did-beyonce-and-the-dixie-chicks-have-a-sly-message-in-their-cma-awards-performance/
Oh, that is awesome.
1. i love this song. did before this live version. I know she didn’t write it, it was written by a songwriter that didn’t have a dad, and she wrote it as a fantasy. Beyonce clearly saw herself in it.
2. it’s hard to perform with beyonce and not be upstaged, even though beyonce tries hard to give everyone a good spot on stage (i mean, shes in glittering white and the dixie chicks blend into the black background so…)
3. I can see why #2 would ‘bother’ country folk in a way (upstaging a ‘country’ group as a pop person)…but come on…if you don’t want to recognize that blues and country and folk and rock and roll are all cousins, you’re stupid.
4. i love all the instruments. and i love that beyonce is the only one not playing anything LOL
5. I can’t help but see this as a ‘political’ statement of sorts with beyonce dipping her toes into a ‘white’ event or ‘white’ music’. (we all know it’s not ‘white music’ but since it’s mostly white artists and white fans at this awards show, it’s perceived as such) and I think it’s a good thing to mesh everyone together, mesh the musical styling together. it still seems ‘weird’ that beyonce is there, but it’s change, and change is OK in my book and is needed right now.
6. OMG the instruments! the brass, the strings, the harmonica, that breakdown at 4:00…if you don’t appreciate that as music and entertainment, you’re a fool.
one question: who is beyonce blowing kisses to? She does it twice. were jayz and blue ivy in the audience?
Oh my word – that was amazing. And Beyoncé was having so much fun, I could see it in her face and body language. That was just … amazing.
Honestly not even the worst comments I saw last night. On the EW article covering this story, a guy literally posted ‘Beyoncé needs to go back to Africa with the rest of the monkeys’.
This is why people were getting so heated on that Sarandon thread yesterday. For some people, like myself, Clinton is the only thing standing between us and regressing 50 years.
I love this and think the performance was great but I just cannot with Natalie Maines.
Ok, well what about Charley Pride up there on that stage at the beginning of the show? Beyonce’s song, when I heard it, I knew would be performed at country shows, but the Dixie Chicks made my night. That performance was awesome, Brooks and Dunn sound like they can’t even sing anymore. Or was it the addition of Jason Aldean?
And Reba always warms my heart. Also, Miranda Lambert. That song is beautiful and live was so much better than the radio edit.
Oh honey, it was Jason Aldean. Him and his KFC complexion were half a key off that whole song.
I’m a Kentucky girl (having lived here 33 of my 35 years), and while my tastes lean more towards indie, quirky stuff, I grew up with the country of the 80s and 90s. I mean, when Garth Brooks sang “Don’t Close Your Eyes”, i started bawling.
And i love Dixie Chicks and Bey. I did notice Dolly Parton gettin’ down to their performance. 😊😊😊
I peed a little. HAHAHAHAHA. Thank you!
This seemed like a statement although I’m not sure what or by who. Beyonce. Dixie chicks. The somewhat flamboyant white haired gentlemen with sexy moves. Like it seemed kinda like a liberal middle finger.
Beyoncé has been a middle finger from the beginning of the year and I love it
That’s a great way of putting it!
I’ve always had a lot of respect for the Dixie Chicks, this just confirms it.
why is everybody at the audience so uncomfortable?
I saw that too, only Camila Alves and Matthew McConaughey looked like they were enjoying themselves?
I didn’t see any discomfort at all? It’s funny how different we can perceive things.
I saw several people clapping and dancing, smiling and enjoying themselves, there was even someone doing the bow with the arms stretched out after the performance. Everyone looked enthralled more than anything.
I thought the audience looked like they were having a good time.
The video clip I watched last night (not sure if it’s this one) showed a quick glimpse of Kenny Chesney and a couple of others who were standing but not happy about it and not clapping. As someone pointed out upthread, this was a middle finger to the so-called fans who tried to skin the Dixie Chicks alive not so long ago for daring to express their opinion as Americans.
Chesney is tight with the Bush family and in the past, has spoken highly of George W. I hope this reaction is more to the Dixie Chicks than B – which would still be lame (dude it was 10 years ago, they are allowed to believe something different to you) but if it was at B (and the undercurrent of race) then I am pissed that I bought Cheney’s new album this week.
It was reasonable brave of her to do this gig. She doesn’t need the support of the country music industry. It wasn’t that long ago that Paisley had a song called ‘casually racist’, the confederate flag is referred in a lot of songs and seen at gigs this last summer and Aldean recently was telling us that people upset about him in blackface on Halloween are too sensitive.
I loved this, queen B gave me chills.
Off topic, but did anyone see or hear how much buzz Little Big Town was getting for their new single being written by Taylor Swift? It sucked!
“Daddy Lessons” is actually one of my personal favorites on the album, and I’m not even a daddy’s girl. I think that’s the reason why I like it.
I love love LOVE the Dixie Chicks! This is great.
maybe these racists should stop and think about how country got put on mainstream radio – ray charles.
All of the tweets are vile but the one that really got to me was the one that’s hashtagged “you can’t sit with us.” It’s a call out to separate water fountains and complete segregation and its freaking chilling. I read that the KKK is doing voter turnout for Donald Trump and I just don’t even know what’s going on with our country right now.
I am afraid that most posters here are unaware(forgot??) that the Dixie Chicks also took a political stand and paid dearly for it. Strongly suggest watching “Shut Up and Sing”.
OT- still basking in the Cubbie glow- shallow I know.
That show made me a huge fan of Nat’s and the band. The guts she needed to walk out on that stage after being told she would be shot dead at her concert was awe inspiring to me. Gutsy lady.
I’m not really a huge Beyoncé fan, but I have to give it to her. She is the best performer in the world
Forgot this was even on. Go Cubbies!!!
Calm down white people….. it’s just a collaboration and many artists have crossed over before for these…..
I killed her entire Lemonade album with nausea associations (idiot! what was I thinking?), but I’ve no doubt this was an awesome performance. Love her and the Dixie Chicks and hate racism and misogyny.
Dixie Chicks have been performing ‘Daddy Lessons’ on their tour all summer and when I saw them I actually mentioned to my friend how great it would be if they were able to perform it with Beyoncé on an awards show. It’s like Beyoncé heard my prayer.
Such a great performance. Eff those country music fans if they can’t deal with outspoken women being excellent even despite all the attempts to silence them.
Fantastic performance… Loved it!
HATED IT! (in my best In Living Color “Men on Film” voice)
Beyonce oversang, as usual, wore hideous clothing, as usual, and sounded terrible, as usual. 95% of pop music is garbage.
Everyone crying about “her place” needs to shove it. Hate her because she SUCKS, not for any other reason.
I liked it, but I don’t call her BeYAWNce for nuthin!
loved the musicians ..loved Dixie Chicks. Beyoncé hit some notes but then not and her dress..meh.
Bey rules every stage she sets foot on! Now if only her choice of clothing could improve…
I’m not a Beyoncé fan. I can appreciate her talent but I don’t really like her music. That said; she and the Dixie Chicks killed last night and I am desperately hoping they will release their collaboration as a single. I will buy that in a heartbeat!
They already have! It’s out now. Heard it yesterday.
I thought it was great!! Good for them!
YES Beyonce. And I love that she did it with the Dixie Chicks.
The CMA website removed all traces the performance and removed all their tweets mentioning the performance!!! Just…wow. To paraphrase Barbara Mandrell, “I loved country, when country still was cool” No more.
Just watched the performance. That was amazing!!!
I love the Dixie Chicks and I love Beyonce – it was so cool to see them onstage together. IMO, they killed it. As a white Southerner and country music fan, OH I am embarrassed af by those racist tweets. I’ve seen a lot of noise about it on my FB feed, too, and I swear I’m gonna end up hurting somebody’s feelings soon. Maybe it’s all the damn Trump signs around here, but I’m edgy and agro lately LOL. The performance was awesome – classy musicians up there making some great music. These people act like this is the first time genres have been melded together. smfh. I promise, not all country music fans are like that!!!
The Dixie Chicks Not Ready to Make Nice helped me face my assault and got me through the toughest times and still does. Screw all those racist twats.