(LifeSiteNews) — The traditionally conservative genre of American country music was invaded Sunday by woke gender ideology and political correctness in a historically disappointing performance at the CMT (Country Music Television) Awards.
Kelsea Ballerini, a 29-year-old musician from Tennessee, served as a host and performer at this year’s awards show. She opened the event — which was held in Austin, Texas — with a tribute to the three 9-year-old children and three adults who were tragically murdered by a gender confused woman at a Nashville Christian school last week. Ballerini lamented a classmate who witnessed the tragedy and dedicated the night’s broadcast to victims of gun violence.
In what appears to be direct contrast to her compassion for the victims, the country star was later joined on stage by four drag queens in a suspected attempt to protest the growing number of laws barring children from exposure to drag performances and medical intervention for gender confusion. Her home state of Tennessee is one part of the country enacting such legislation.
The group performed Ballerini’s 2022 song “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too)” on a brightly lit stage decorated with exaggerated colors and sets. The song is written to a childhood friend, promising to take any consequence of the friend’s actions alongside her, regardless of whether the friend is acting with any moral compass.
In solidarity with her friend, Ballerini sings that “dirt on you is dirt on me” and gives extreme examples such as “if you rob a bank, I’m your getaway Mercedes” and “if you ever kill your husband, hand on the Bible I’d be lyin’ through my teeth.”
Throughout the performance, four men masquerading as women can be seen awkwardly dancing in the background, garbed in short dresses, heels, wigs, and caked in makeup. In addition to the apparent lack of decency in publicly supporting the LGBT agenda in the aftermath of yet another mass shooting committed by a member of that community, the presence of drag queens at a country music performance is fundamentally out of character.
The LGBT agenda has permeated nearly every inch of society, from schools to libraries to the White House itself. But country music is one aspect of American culture that has remained non-political and generally conservative throughout the rise of gender ideology.
Country music has always been an artistic way of portraying traditional values such as faith, family, marriage, love of home and country, respect for others — especially older generations — and appreciation for work. These values were clear from the earlier days of country music’s popularity, when John Denver released “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and George Strait’s romantic choruses swept the country off its feet. One of Strait’s most popular songs, “Love Without End, Amen,” recalls how two fathers pass along a “secret” to their sons, which is that “daddies don’t just love their children every now and then, it’s a love without end, amen.”
The song concludes with God giving the same message to the singer.
And not all contemporary country music has lost this set of values. “Tennessee Orange,” a 2022 single which won the CMT Breakthrough Female Video of the Year Award on Sunday, is about a girl respectfully telling her parents about a young man she’s falling in love with, in which she describes how “he opens the door and don’t make me cry.” Winner of the Video of the Year award, “Thank God” by Kane and Katelyn Brown features the husband and wife singing about how “what we got’s worth thanking God for.”
While not every song promotes these values, most do, even if some artists perform in questionable attire or don’t practice what they preach. Like all secular genres of music, country songs are not free of promoting little to no moral standards, such as premarital sex and drinking too much. One such song is titled “Hotel Key” by Old Dominion and tells the story of a one-night stand. Morgan Wallen, who was “cancelled” by society in 2021 for using a racial slur while intoxicated, also has his fair share of songs showcasing a poor role model. But even top country artist Wallen — and arguably the most controversial, not counting his new competition in Ballerini — released a song reflecting on bad behavior and how he “don’t think Jesus done it that way.”
However, even the worst of these songs doesn’t sing about same-sex relationships, hating your parents, or turning against your country — all of which are notable characteristics of the LGBT movement. Ballerini just made history for her performance alongside drag queens, but not in a way that many Americans will want to remember. A simple scroll through Twitter shows the disappointment of countless citizens, who are all saying the same thing: Drag queens are simply not included in the conservative values of the country music genre, and CMT can expect a significant drop in support after pretending that they are.