Kacey Musgraves is facing backlash from some fans after she showed support for immigrant families during a birthday performance.
The Grammy-winning country singer celebrated her 38th birthday on Friday by marking the opening night of her Middle of Nowhere tour in Chicago. At one point during the performance, she paused the show and urged the audience to donate to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights as her “birthday wish.”
“It’s a wonderful organization, and they help give aid — legal aid — and money to children whose parents have been deported unfairly,” Musgraves said on stage. “It’s not a political thing. It’s just, these kids need help.”
She continued: “They have no guidance and no way to get through this thing without their home base or their parents. So anyway, 50 cents, whatever the hell, I don’t know, whatever you want to do, but that would mean a lot to me. If you don’t want to, that’s totally fine too.”
The plea was met with applause and cheers from her crowd at the United Center. However, once videos of the moment started circulating online, conservative political commentators were quick to unleash their wrath on the “Follow Your Arrow” singer.
One fan countered in the comments of her latest post: “We love you Kacey! People upset and surprised she would support the Young Centre clearly know nothing about her: she’s always been a progressive, and not quiet about it.”
This is not the first time that Musgraves has upset conservatives. She has spent her career backing progressive causes, from supporting immigrants to gun control and LGBTQ+ rights.
Her pick of charity also does not come out of nowhere: Musgraves has repeatedly championed the Young Center, a national nonprofit that advocates for children separated from their families. Earlier this year, she partnered with Depop to sell pieces from her music videos and her personal wardrobe to raise money for the organization.
Reminds me when fascists / fascist enablers were surprised rage against the machine were left leaning
In my experience white Christians genuinely believe that everyone who looks like them also thinks like them.
That’s because they live insular lives where they get no pushback. Of course they would think that when their entire lives they rarely meet people that shows them otherwise. The fact that in the US people are allowed to homeschool their children and isolate them from their peers means that will continue to be a fact.
Left “leaning” in the sense of seizing the means of production, arming the homeless and openly calling for the revolution to do away with capitalism.
breaking: conservative fans recoil in horror over “basic human decency” and “not being an asshole”
They strongly argue that empathy will be the undoing of society. It’s a pretty common thing in conservative echo chambers. They’re about targeting vulnerable to maintain their status as an in-group, and are totally absorbed in their self-interest, even though most of them will never be part of the Epstein class.
That can backfire when the ones that need empathy are them.
It routinely does, and they still don’t learn.
See, it’s not that they don’t learn, it’s that they refuse to. If something challenges their worldview they ignore it.
Empathy is arguably the thing that separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom
I disagree, many animals have way more empathy than these people
One of our kitties comes over any time someone is sad or sick or hurt. I can’t remember the last time she cheered for ICE killing a civilian, so I think this checks out.
Nothing terrifies the wealthy like facing the consequences of how shitty they’ve made other people’s lives.
So when your life gets bad enough, they give you someone else to hate.
They think you’re stupid in addition to being exploitable.
This is FALSE! MANY, if not ALL CONSERVATIVES are ALREADY having Sex With Children!
“not torturing children”
“It’s mah right.”
If she’s pissing off conservatives, she’s doing the right thing.
Amen.
God bless her. ❤️
Those people were never ever her fans and were certainly not at her concert.
It’s not a backlash because those people weren’t listening to her to begin with. They just heard she was being kind and decided to act like she suddenly did something terrible. She’s been doing this from the start, nothing changed.
Her lyrics are so unique and entertaining. She feels like the first young contemporary female artist to not constantly write about breakups.
Racists think they own that genre.
Which is funny because it was created by black field workers and poor immigrants from Europe. The banjo is an African instrument.
Rich white people can’t help but steal others culture and call it their own.
Remember the outrage at the Beyonce county album as if she isn’t a black woman from Texas, with more reason than most to do country music?
They sorta do.
There are definitely examples of good country music but by sheer volume the bro country Morgan Walen types account for most of it.
I dont like country music but i really enjoy her stuff. Its like a breath of fresh air in a musty room.
She might be the only country artist I listen to.
…once videos of the moment started circulating online, conservative political commentators were quick to unleash their wrath…
It’s important to remember that some pretty significant fraction of these “commentators” are really shills, robots, and/or other cyber-turfing actors. They’re propagandists, they sow culture war outrage on purpose, they don’t really believe in anything.
💯. I really wish people would check video histories of crap they watch.
If someone is just a 24/7 outrage machine, it should be a pretty obvious clue they’re not to be taken seriously, no matter what perspective they’re coming from. It’s just a toxic channel.
I’ve seen lots of game review channels just be “X is the WORST” and “TOTAL GARBAGE” for literally anything. It’s such an obvious ragebait scheme.
Yeah, and social media algorithms promote the outrage. Something that gets a lot of reactions is going to be boosted, making it look far more popular than it actually is.
Conservatives: we’re Christian and love everyone. Except those fucking immigrants.
…And ‘em damn gays. Coun’ 'em in too.
And everyone and everyTHING else that isn’t a white cishet male Christian fascist.
Are you seriously gonna come in here and pretend that Jesus didn’t say “fuck immigrants”? Cause that’s the message they remember. “In fact,” he said, “anyone you don’t like, too.” It’s right there in the bible. Look it up.
Wait. You mean to say when she said something reasonable in real life, people supported it? And when it went online, bad faith actors used it as target practice? Say it ain’t so.
She has been progressive for years, and I love to see it. A lot of the “outlaw country” genre are down-to-earth grassroots progressives, not at all like the bro country artists heard on mass-market FM radio.
What’s wild is that’s what country used to be. Telling corporations to fuck off. I mean the song “Take this job and shove it” was a massive hit once upon a time
Every genre eventually falls prey to the “pop” addition.
Saw a funny one on FB the other day. An exchange by a rather progressive outlaw style dude and the comment was “you sing all the time about crime and stuff” and his response was “tf do you think the ‘outlaw’ part means???”
Kacey Musgraves is an amazing artist. She has been beloved by the LGBTQ+ community for a decade now.
If you’re not familiar with her music, I would recommend starting with the song “Follow Your Arrow”, which is about living your life as authentically as possible and very explicitly supports the queer community. Here’s the chorus:
So, make lots of noise (hey)\
Kiss lots of boys (yup)\
Or kiss lots of girls, if that’s something you’re into\
When the straight and narrow gets a little too
straight\
Roll up a joint, or don’t\
Just follow your arrow wherever it points, yeah\
Follow your arrow wherever it points
“Golden Hour”, which is her Grammy-nominated album, is an absolute masterpiece and played a significant role in my first queer relationship. The song “Rainbow” still makes me tear up and look back fondly on my coming out years. I have seen her a few times in concert and she always dedicates it to the LGBTQ+ community.
My spouse was obsessed with Space Cowboy for a while, which is an amazing song. But at some point, I was genuinely worried I was about to get divorced since she’s listening to this saddest song ever about a breakup. Nope, just a super-captivating song, which I realized when I was also listening to it for the 5th time in a day.
Speaking of which…
Even before I clicked the post I knew exactly who it was. Kacey Musgraves is awesome and anybody who doesn’t know her views just from her music just doesn’t fuckin pay attention.
Same. Kacey Musgraves is now the only nominee for the “only decent person in county music” award.
hey don’t speak so quickly! Country music is full of people like Nick Shoulders and Willie Carlisle, who are also two names you really should add to your repertoire.
just gotta go lookin for em, they won’t be promoted to you
Tyler Childers, Chris Stapleton, Jesse Welles, Bryan Andrews… there’re there. You just gotta look.
yes thank you! all great artists
Jesse Welles is definitely folk music. Folk is not country and has always been fairly progressive.
folk/country/americana run hand in hand, arguing about genre is futile
You know what you’re right. Its semantics level bullshit my bad. He has twang lol.
there’s plenty of fash-leaning folk musicians too sadly
Happy to hear it! I’ll check them out.
Kacey is too good for Nashville
Like when the Dixie Chicks roasted their careers criticizing a war that chud got elected by criticizing. We’re among very stupid, thoughtless people. And they vote.
A strong example of reality vs bots and amplified online voices.
They make it seem like the two sides are closer than they are so when they steal the election it seems plausible.
Liked her before. Like her more now.
I lost my faith in humanity during covid. The sheer cruelty of people doesn’t surprises me anymore.
