Travis Tritt, Beyonce Fans In Social Media Feud After CMA Performance
Travis Tritt is not happy about Beyonce’s performance with the Dixie Chicks at the 2016 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards earlier this week, and Beyonce’s fans are not happy that Tritt is not happy about it, Us Weekly reports.
Tritt, 53, began tweeting about Beyonce’s performance Thursday night after he and his band left the stage for a concert in Kentucky. In short, Tritt doesn’t think country music needs to lean on rap or pop stars to legitimize itself, but his words got a little dicey at times.
Travis Tritt Criticizes The CMAs For Having Beyonce Perform And Then Pays The Price https://t.co/RXU70cJXgd
— Shawn Branch (@gntlman) November 6, 2016
“Thanks to everyone who came out to see us in Bowling Green, KY tonight. Sorry, we weren’t able to do any Beyoncé for all the country fans,” read Tritt’s initial tweet, according to Us Weekly. He followed that up with several more.
“FYI – My band and I are gonna try to work up Beyoncé’s ‘All The Single Ladies’ for all you die hard country fans who love traditional music!” read another of the tweets.
In yet another tweet, he added, “I want to know when the BET or SoulTrain awards are gonna ask a country artist to perform on their awards show?”
In subsequent tweets, he explained that he was not criticizing Beyonce or her music personally, but rather that he was bothered by the fact that the CMA felt compelled to chase higher ratings by bringing a star from another genre into the awards ceremony.
“As I see it, country music has appealed to millions for many years,” Tritt tweeted. “We can stand on our own and don’t need pop artists on our awards shows. I love honest to God country music and feel the need to stand up for it at all costs. We don’t need pop or rap artists to validate us.”
Beyonce’s fans weren’t having it.
“Naturally, the Beyhive banded together and stung Tritt for his comments,” the Us Weekly article reads, referring to the nickname for Beyonce fans.
“Why don’t you do a collaboration with Beyoncé? You might generate more hits,” one fan tweeted, according to Us Weekly.
“If you hate pop music influencing country that’s fine. Singling out Beyonce is not,” another added. “Daddy Lessons actually fits the genre.”
Beyonce also got some support from Natalie Maines, the lead singer of The Dixie Chicks. Maines used some of Beyonce’s lyrics from her song “Formation” in her response to Travis Tritt.
“You know you dat B*tch when you cause all this conversation,” Maines wrote, according to Us Weekly. “Always stay gracious best revenge is your paper.”
Travis Tritt weighs in on Beyoncé CMA controversy with quite a Twitter rant https://t.co/QzYUUzHVrI
— Dawn M Beers (@dawnie0030) November 6, 2016
The tension between Tritt and Beyonce’s fans was not the only controversy to arise from the performance.
As Us Weekly reports, there were rumors that the CMA removed all reference to Beyonce’s performance from its website after the awards show ended. However, it turned out that only a brief, “unauthorized” clip had been removed from the site.
Tritt released his first album, Country Club, in 1989. He subsequently released several platinum albums throughout the 1990s, according to Biography. Five of his songs have charted on the Billboard Magazine Hot 100.
Beyonce, likewise, has sold millions of albums. Lemonade, her sixth studio album, sold 500,000 digital copies in one week after it was released earlier this year. That put the album at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, the Washington Post reported.
Travis Tritt’s concern over the purity of country music is somewhat ironic considering that he initially had trouble fitting into the world of country music because many critics and producers felt there was too much rock and roll influence in his songs, according to Biography.
We’ll have to wait and see if Beyonce and Travis Tritt can make amends. Maybe a collaboration wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.
[Featured Image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images]
