Dixie Chicks booed at Country Music Awards

Date: 22 May 2003 13:06:12 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.gossip.celebrities
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ASSOCIATED PRESS.....
LAS VEGAS - The Dixie Chicks didn't show up last night at the Academy of
Country Music Awards - but that didn't stop the audience from booing the very
mention of their name. The Chicks, once the darlings of country music, have
been on the defensive since March, when singer Natalie Maines, in a jab at the
then-pending Iraqi war, told a London audience she was ashamed to come from
Texas, home state of President Bush.
Several radio stations pulled the chart-topping group's songs, and sales of
their acclaimed new album slipped.
Instead of showing up at the glitzy Las Vegas ceremony, the three-time nominees
performed a song live via satellite from Austin, Texas. They received a "pretty
big negative response," the show's host, Reba McEntire, told reporters
backstage afterward.
Later during the ceremony, presenter Vince Gill jokingly mumbled their names
when listing the contenders for entertainer of the year.
Gill, who has said people should forgive the group, said backstage that the
atmosphere "wasn't near as volatile" as it was during the Flameworthy Music
Awards in Nashville last month.
* * *
By TOM GARDNER, Associated Press Writer
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.
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."
Maines has been in the country music doghouse since she told a London audience
on March 10, before the start of the war in Iraq, that "we're ashamed the
president of the United States is from Texas."
The Dixie Chicks were a late addition, performing by satellite from their
hometown of Austin, Texas.
Maines sat silently 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.
The show, televised by CBS, was presented from Las Vegas this year for the
first time in the event's 38-year history and McEntire managed to get both the
Chicks and Las Vegas in her opening monologue.
"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."
* * *
ASSOCIATED PRESS.....
Former country music darlings the Dixie Chicks are still paying a price for
criticizing the U.S.-led war against Iraq. The trio was snubbed at the Academy
of Country Music Awards on Wednesday while audience members booed the very
mention of the absent group's name.
The Texas musicians have been on the defensive since March, when singer Natalie
Maines. Several radio stations pulled the chart-topping group's songs, and
sales of their acclaimed new album slipped.
Instead of showing up at the glitzy Las Vegas ceremony, the three-time nominees
performed a song live via satellite from Austin, Texas. They received a "pretty
big negative response," the show's host, Reba McEntire, told reporters
backstage afterward.
Later during the ceremony, presenter Vince Gill jokingly mumbled their names
when listing the contenders for entertainer of the year.
Gill, who has said people should forgive the group, said backstage that the
atmosphere "wasn't near as volatile" as it was during the Flameworthy Music
Awards in Nashville last month.
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