Did The Country Music Awards Delete All Mentions Of Beyoncé’s Performance? CMAs Respond

On Wednesday, Beyoncé hit the stage at Country Music Awards with the Dixie Chicks to perform her song “Daddy Lessons.” Leading up to the performance, the CMAs heavily promoted Beyoncé and following the performance, posted footage of it.

Yesterday, reports began to spread that the CMAs had wiped any mention of Beyonce and the performance from its website and social media accounts. Video clips were gone and on the CMA website, Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks were both not mentioned on the official list of 2016 performers.

Now the CMAs is denying any wrongdoing and instead stating that Beyoncé’s team is responsible for the removal of her footage. In a statement a rep for the CMAs wrote: “CMA has not erased any mentions of Beyoncé’s performance on the CMA Awards.”

“In advance of the broadcast, CMA removed a five-second promotional clip from ABC.com and CMA’s Facebook page,” the statement continued. “The promo was unapproved and CMA removed it prior to the broadcast. Beyoncé’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 official social channels.”

Sarah Trahern, chief executive of the CMAs, also told the New York Times that Beyoncé had not approved the video. “Beyoncé’s team hadn’t approved that, so we pulled it down. Fans can get kind of passionate and read other things into it.”

After noticing the footage and mentions of the performance were missing, many social media users speculated it had to do with racially-fueled remarks that some were making about the performance. Many CMA fans took to Twitter to voice their displeasure with having Beyoncé perform.

Following the performance, Beyoncé’s personal website uploaded behind-the-scenes photos from the show. An official version of the “Daddy Lessons” remix is now available on Soundcloud.