She Has Our Backs

I am not a fan of Country and Western music, I like some of the music but I can take it or leave it but this was the perfect forum for this!

Texas Wants to Make Last Night’s CMT Music Awards Illegal
But there is nothing more “country” than what host Kelsea Ballerini did on stage Sunday night.
The Daily Beast
By Justin Kirkland
April 3, 2023

When the CMT Music Awards announced that country star Kelsea Ballerini would be hosting this year’s ceremony, no one had a reason to believe that viewers would be in for anything that wasn’t par for the course. Ballerini has hosted the show for the past two years. She’s a staple in the modern country music scene, and in a genre that has largely been a bastion from polarizing social commentary, she’s become a relatively safe choice for these kinds of gigs.

But after Sunday night’s ceremony, Ballerini is decidedly off the “safe list.” In a one, two punch, Ballerini called for gun reform in front of country music’s biggest stars and then later performed alongside drag queens amid a slew of anti-drag legislation sweeping across the country. It’s the kind of move that leaves some country fans livid, declaring Ballerini as some kind of “woke” traitor of the genre. Truth is? Last night was the most country Kelsea Ballerini has ever been.

More celebrities are speaking out… Thank You!

Kelsea Ballerini’s Performance With ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Queens at CMT Awards Playfully Flouts Wave of Anti-Drag Laws
The 'Hairspray'-like performance couldn't help but come off as a statement on Tennessee's and Texas's legislation — the second topical moment in a show that had Ballerini more emotionally addressing gun-violence tragedy
Variety
By Chris Willman
April 3, 2023

During the opening monologue at Sunday night’s CMT Music Awards, broadcast from Austin on CBS, there was a comedic bit in which Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown exchanged anniversary presents to celebrate their cohosting of the show for the third consecutive time. Brown gave Ballerini a cowboy hat, and she reciprocated by giving him a pink hat to put on in return. At least a few audience members shared a joke about the exchange: By wearing pink, would Brown be breaking Tennessee’s recently passed law that some believe would ban most drag performances in the state, if they were back home?

[…]

The choreography and design offered the biggest splashes of color in a night already filled with colorful costuming and production elements. The performance read nearly as a salute to “Hairspray,” with the four veterans of RuPaul’s camp — Jan Sport, Olivia Lux, Manila Luzon and Kennedy Davenport — decked out in dresses redolent of the early ’60s, complementing Ballerini as she eventually shed layers to get down to what looked like 1960s swimwear.

We will win this legislative assault on us with our allies!