Beyonce's Country Music Awards performance sparks bitter racism row

The US's Country Music Awards learned a valuable showbiz lesson overnight: know your audience. Especially if that audience includes a bunch of virulent racists.

The awards show, celebrating its 50th anniversary on Wednesday with a glitzy ceremony in honky-tonk Nashville - the arty enclave of Trump-favoured Tennessee - appeared to score a massive coup.

Performing alongside the Dixie Chicks on the night was none other than pop superstar Beyonce, a fact the show proudly pushed during its telecast.

Taking the stage in a striking 'nude' dress by Melbourne designers J'Aton, the singer belted out Daddy Lessons, a ballad described as "her most country-leading song".

The band fiddled, the audience rose to their feet in a celebratory ovation, the whole thing scored "show-stopping" reviews from those watching.

Well, not all of them.

Not long after the telecast ended, a number of viewers took to Facebook and Twitter to voice their displeasure that Beyonce – an R&B; singer, or to put it more bluntly, a Black singer – had been invited to perform at their beloved institution.

"Loved it until Beyonce and Dixie Chicks. They have no place there!" went one comment.

"Ruined when that POS Beyonce took the stage! Sickening and SHUT OFF!" went another comment, instantly earning over 300 likes.

Beyonce has been the subject of red state hate ever since her #BlackLivesMatter-inspired Super Bowl performance in February, which some clueless viewers called "cop-hating" and "racist" against whites.  

The Dixie Chicks, meanwhile, are no country industry favourites, either. They were infamously vilified by former fans at their peak, after singer Natalie Maines publicly spoke out against George W. Bush and his war in Iraq at a concert in London in 2003 (the whole saga was charted in the 2006 doco, Shut Up And Sing).

The awards show now finds itself at the centre of a racism row, accused of "whitewashing" the event, after seemingly folding to viewer criticism and removing all trace of the Beyonce/Dixie Chicks performance from their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube sites, as well as the ceremony's official list of confirmed performers.  

In a statement released in response to the online criticism, the CMAs explicitly denied that they'd deleted Beyonce's performance from their accounts, citing an unapproved clip from telecast network ABC.

"CMA has not erased any mentions of Beyonce's performance on the CMA Awards," the statement said.

"In advance of the broadcast, CMA removed a five-second promotional clip from ABC.com and CMA's Facebook page. The promo was unapproved and CMA removed it prior to the broadcast.

"Beyonce's performance with Dixie Chicks was a highlight of the evening and we are continuing to share the amazing full-length performance clip via our social channels," it continued.

The clips have since reappeared on the CMA's Facebook page - but so have the nasty comments, decrying both Beyonce's "pop trash" and her support of Black Lives Matter and, sheesh, "killing cops".

While Beyonce's remained relatively quiet on the whole sorry fallout, the Dixie Chicks offered a pointed comment to detractors.

"If we all turn this up really loud, together we can drown out the hate," they wrote on Twitter, linking to a Soundcloud clip of the performance.