When Beyoncé performed at the 2016 CMA Awards, she faced an onslaught of racist backlash online.
But a new documentary reveals that the music superstar was also the target of vitriol inside the very arena where she debuted her twangy “Daddy Lessons” remix with the Chicks.
“An audience member in front of me proceeds to say, ‘Get that black bitch off the stage right now,’” attendee Tanner Davenport recalls in CNN’s “Call Me Country: Beyoncé & Nashville’s Renaissance.”
“I remember instantly kind of being taken back to reality in that moment — to realize that there’s, like, a threat of black people being in this genre for some reason,” adds the co-director of the Black Opry, a website that raises awareness for black country artists.
While a rep for the CMAs called Beyoncé’s performance “a highlight of the evening” after it aired, countless viewers flooded social media with bigoted messages about the Grammy winner, who got her start in the R&B girl group Destiny’s Child but has since transcended genres. (To this day, no official videos of the polarizing number are available online, only fan uploads.)
“For Beyoncé to not be welcomed feels like a gut punch,” Davenport says.
“Daddy Lessons,” which originally appeared on Queen Bey’s visual album “Lemonade,” was the singer’s first foray into country music, a genre with black origins that has become predominantly white over time.
Earlier this year, Beyoncé, 42, fully leaned into her Texas roots with her eighth studio album, “Cowboy Carter,” which she said was “born out of” her experience of not feeling accepted at the 2016 CMAs.
“The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me,” she wrote on Instagram in March.
“Cowboy Carter,” which is the second part of a three-act project that began with 2022’s house-influenced “Renaissance,” features country icons Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Linda Martell. It also has gotten the stamp of approval from music legends such as Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.
The 27-track record debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts earlier this month, making Beyoncé the first black woman to top the latter.
“Call Me Country: Beyoncé & Nashville’s Renaissance” is available to stream Friday on Max.
