Beyoncé’s Country Doc Reveals Racial Slurs Were Overheard During Her 2016 CMAs Performance
In Beyoncé’s CNN documentary Call Me Country: Beyoncé & Nashville’s Renaissance (streaming now on Max), a clip revealed that during the icon’s 2016 Country Music Awards performance of “Daddy Lessons” with The Dixie Chicks, racial slurs were hurled her way.
“An audience member in front of me proceeds to say, ‘Get that Black bi**h off the stage right now,’” shared Tanner Davenport, an actual attendee who attended the event that year. “I remember instantly kind of being taken back to reality in that moment — to realize that there’s, like, a threat of Black people being in this genre for some reason.”
Following Bey’s performance, she received backlash from the country music community and even was rejected for Grammy consideration over her Lemonade single. The latter was her first foray into the genre that originally began with Black musicians many moons ago.
Currently, Bey is toting her eighth studio album, Cowboy Carter, which was “born out of” her unfavorable experience at the 2016 CMA’s.
“It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed… and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” she wrote in an open letter on Instagram last March. “Because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive.”
She added, “It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.”
Cowboy Carter, which is the second installment of the three-act Renaissance series, features country icons Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Linda Martell. Paul McCartney has also given it his blessing.
Bey also made history as the first Black woman to top the Country music charts, debuting at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums list.
Viewers can stream Call Me Country: Beyoncé & Nashville’s Renaissance now on Max.
Check out the trailer below.
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