Maren Morris is showing her support for Beyoncé as the pop monolith prepares to release her country album, Cowboy Carter.
On Tuesday (March 19), Beyoncé traced her album’s inspiration back to a time when she felt a chilly reception from the country genre.
“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 said in a social media post.
Morris was among the many commenters applauding Beyoncé for pointing out the incident.
“Drag them, Queen,” she wrote approvingly in the comments section, according to People.
Of course, Morris has plenty of her own experience of criticizing country music’s culture: She’s voiced her objections to multiple instances of racism, sexism and homophobia on the part of some of the genre’s biggest stars. Perhaps most famously, she entered into a feud with Jason Aldean’s wife Brittany after Brittany made transphobic comments in an Instagram reel in 2022.
In late 2023, Morris put out two songs, “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here,” that appeared to serve as her official exit from country music. She announced as much in a sweeping Los Angeles Times interview, but subsequently walked that statement back a little, clarifying that she’ll always feel connected to the genre but that she hoped to move away from some of its more harmful mechanisms.
What Does Beyoncé Mean When She Says She’s Unwelcome in Country?
The singer didn’t offer specifics, but it’s a solid bet that she was referring to the 2016 CMA Awards, when she teamed up with the Chicks for a performance of “Daddy Lessons,” a country-leaning track off her Lemonade album.
Responses to her performance were mixed. Plenty of viewers called it a highlight of the awards show, but Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines subsequently said she fielded some unwelcoming comments from “racist a–holes.”
On Twitter, artist manager and Black Opry co-director Tanner Davenport recalled being in the crowd that night and watching as “a woman in front of me yelled ‘Get that Black b—h off the stage!’”
I was at the CMAs the night this happened. I’ll never forget when a woman in front of me yelled “Get that Black bi**h off the stage!”
These experiences have happened countless times to numerous Black folks in country music spaces. We’re trying to change that at @BlackOpry. https://t.co/ERsjZOMHtC
— Tanner D (@literallytanner) March 19, 2024
Not long after the awards show, one unnamed artist manager also alleged to Billboard that he saw Alan Jackson walk out of his front row seat in protest of Beyoncé’s performance, although the evidence that that ever happened is relatively slim.
Beyoncé has already released two of the tracks off Cowboy Carter, including her country radio hit, “Texas Hold ‘Em.” She’s also been teasing a couple of exciting collaborations and surprises on the tracklist.
The album is due for release on March 29.
