Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the 50th annual Country Music Association Awards. It was an experience I will never forget and I loved every bit of it. The next day however, I opened up my phone and saw many negative comments about Beyoncé's performance. Some comments were racist, and some were just negative in general. On the drive in to work on Thursday morning, I turned on XM radio channel 56, the country station. and heard the radio announcer agreeing that Beyoncé should not have been at the CMAs. I disagree.
To start, the Country Music Association Awards is meant to celebrate the biggest country music achievements of the year. I think the fact that Beyoncé, a pop star, wrote a country song is a big achievement for country music and only goes to show how great the genre really is. The Country Music Association has celebrated the fact that country musicians such as Garth Brooks, and Taylor Swift have increased appreciation and awareness for the genre by performing worldwide and getting country songs on pop radio stations. They honored Kenney Chesney with this award during the 2016 CMA's for his global performances and record sales after getting the song "Setting the World on Fire" featuring pop star Pink on pop radio. The pop genre welcomes country with open arms, so why can't the country genre welcome a pop star with the same courtesy. The country genre continued to play Taylor Swift songs on the country radio stations even after she transitioned to playing pop music, so what is the big deal with letting a pop star have some country songs too?
Secondly, to all the people arguing that she took time away from real country musicians at the awards ceremony, I would like to remind you that she was performing with the Dixie Chicks, real country musicians. She did not take any time away from country musicians seeing that country musicians were on stage during the entire performance. I'd like to point out here that the song Beyoncé performed was in fact a jazzy country song from her new album Lemonade called "Daddy Lessons." Also, who is to say what a country musician versus pop star is? If Beyoncé has a country song, doesn't that make her a country singer too, the same as how Taylor swift is considered both country and pop?
Thirdly, I would like to point out that Beyoncé was not the only cross-genre group to perform at the 2016 CMA Awards. The Pentatonix performed an acapella version of "Jolene" with Jennifer Nettles. No one complained that the Pentatonix took attention from Jennifer Nettles.
As for those that made the racist comments? Lets flashback to when Charley Pride won Male Vocalist of the Year in 1971 and 1972 and when Darius Rucker took home the New Artist of the Year Award in 2009.
