The following is from NRO's blog - The Corner:
THE CMA 411 [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
The wonderful Melissa Moskal from the Young America's Foundation e-mails me on how it went down at the Country Music Awards last night:
"The important thing to note about last night's ACMs CMAs wasn't covered in the wire reports...
(I am shocked, aren't you? You would think the NYT would have been all over this.)
The Chicks were nominated for several awards. When their names were announced for nominations pre-performance, the audience clapped for them. It was only AFTER the performance, when whatsherface wore the "F*** You Toby Keith" shirt, and their name was read for "Entertainer of the Year," that the audience booed. And, poetically, Toby Keith beat them out for that award.
Hah!
People might have started to forgive them for the anti-Bush remarks. But picking a fight with reigning country badass Toby Keith has just gotten them totally ostracized from the country community.
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Another take from Fox underscores the deep and simmering resentment among CM fans toward the Chicks: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87503,00.html
LAS VEGAS — Many country music fans aren't ready to forgive the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines for comments critical of President Bush: Voters rejected the group's nominations for three Academy of Country Music Awards and the audience booed the mention of their name.
The problem is that I truly think the Chicks' music is awesome and probably deserving of an award based on merit. Just can't stand their politics.
Presenter Vince Gill urged the audience at Wednesday night's show to "Stop it, stop it." He added: "You know who gets blessed when you forgive — you."
The Dixie Chicks were a late addition, performing by satellite from their hometown of Austin, Texas. Maines sat silently (sullenly?) as Emily Robison briefly introduced the song. The boos erupted when Gill named the Dixie Chicks among nominees for entertainer of the year. Gill said afterward that the reaction was more subdued than at last month's Flameworthy Awards. "It was a pretty volatile crowd that time. This one wasn't so bad," he said.
It didn't seem that way to host Reba McEntire. "It was a pretty big negative response. I don't think it's over," she said after the program.
"Everybody here loves to gamble," she said during an opening monologue. "They're backstage right now checking the latest odds on the Dixie Chicks playing the Bush family reunion." |