Hey, did you watch the 50th Anniversary of the Country Music Awards last night? I didn’t either! But I did watch Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks’ performance of “Daddy Lessons” and hot damn! It’s so fucking amazing. Let’s take a moment to appreciate it.
First off, Beyoncé appears in a killer, shimmering dress with puffy-ass sleeves and wearing lots of pearls and looking hotter than everyone in Nashville. Then country music rebels Natalie, Martie and Emily are right there alongside her making a huge comeback on stage and looking great doing it. Y’all, watching badass women from Texas saying TEXAS on stage made my heart flutter.
Omg then the band! There was a whole band of horns and strings playing the every living fuck out of “Daddy Lessons.”
It was super refreshing to see the majority of the people on stage were black folks, which I don’t think has ever been done on the Country Music Awards stage. Black people had a major hand at creating and shaping country music even though many country music fans don’t know that history and took to social media to spew some hateful, racist commentary on the performance. Some country music fans criticized the CMAs for promoting Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks, who they view as anti-police and unpatriotic.
I think my favorite part of the video was looking at the country music artists’ faces in the audience during their performance, which was a mix of wow, is this happening and I guess I’m enjoying this. Matthew McConaughey was clearly super into it and Kenny Chesney was disinterested at best.
Beyoncé and the Dixie Chick’s performance was a rousing good time and definitely felt like a Moment in Country Music History, a testament that country music isn’t as clearly defined as we thought it was and is showcased through the various genres melded together in “Daddy Lessons.” Also who doesn’t love unapologetic, badass women coming together and dominating a stage? If country music keeps this up, hell, I’ll probably tune to watch the CMAs in next year.
I just have so many feelings and I love this stupid state so much. Don’t mess with Texas women, y’all.
Y’all I loved this so much!!!! For all the reasons Yvonne just highlighted!! Just…. YES!
Also if you want the song as a single, Beyonce and the Dixie Chicks have made it available for free download on SoundCloud:
https://m.soundcloud.com/beyonce/daddy-lessons-featuring-the-dixie-chicks
Which I think might be the most badass move yet :)
Natalie can give me “daddy lessons” all damn day…
So this just happened: The CMAs Just Erased All Signs of Beyoncé on Their Social Media
I’m actually kind of aghast at this move. They used Bey to draw in viewers to their show which ran opposite Game 7 of the World Series (by contrast, NBC and CBS pulled new episodes in the primetime lineup and ran reruns). Now the CMAs want to erase her involvement? That’s crap.
WHAAAAAT!?!?!?
That’s just….. There are no words. Wow.
The article was updated because it seems that the CMAs have at least posted the performance itself on their YouTube, but still… The fact that they had the audacity to even *try* and pull this move at all. Damn.
There is a small subversive part of me that kinda loves the “protest movement” of it all, because the entire timeline of events show that despite their best efforts Bey and DC are still out there being fab and drawing attention and rebelling and being racist country fans’ worst nightmare.
Which, f*ck yes.
But also, I hate that this even had to get this far. You know? That close-minded folks and bigots have such a stronghold.
Anyway, that article is great, btw. Thanks @pecola!
It looks like they may have done it, because they didn’t want to deal with their racist fan base? There are/were comments saying the Dixie Chicks have no place being at the CMA, because of their stance against the police. Then again country music fans haven’t been kind to them for years.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/3/13513110/cma-awards-beyonce-country-music-association
You’re right- that was bad ass! Thanks for writing about it- probably never would have watched it unless I saw this post :)
She doesn’t have talented and only cares about her image. I feel bad for feminists like you who are naive enough to actually think beyonce gives a damn about WOC and LGBTQ. She doesn’t.
you sound mad
Fantastic performance and song. I laughed out loud at the mic picking up someone excitedly saying, “good job, B!” at the end. Understatement.
That was Natalie Maines!
I’ve watched this like over ten times tonight. So good and unexpected. Bey keeps completely changing the game every time.
I really liked this quote from Spencer Kornhaber’s article in the Atlantic :
With that Shania article on here a couple weeks ago that I still think about, and now Faith Hill getting INTO a Beyonce performance… it’s like all my interests are coming full circle. Natalie Maines’s haircut….
OK but real talks did anyone watch the CMAs? Because ALSO Lily Tomlin gave Dolly Parton an award that was a big deal and I was kinda dying?
Kenny Chesney looks like the personification of the country music industry worrying its female fans might get the idea that women in country music should do more than “slide on over the front seat of my truck” and “wear those painted-on jeans”