Beyonce steals the show at Country Music Awards with Dixie Chicks duet
Beyonce was the stand out performer at the Country Music Association Awards (CMAs) on Wednesday night (02Nov16) as she joined the Dixie Chicks to perform her track Daddy Lessons.
The R&B superstar's appearance at the annual ceremony had been rumored earlier in the day, but the 32-year-old stunned fans as she took to the stage alongside the country music trio, who have been performing the song as part of their DCX MMXVI tour in recent months.
Wearing a low-cut sparkling gold gown with puffy shoulders, Beyonce
looked confident and poised as she belted out the track from her
album Lemonade.
The song hit headlines when Beyonce dropped Lemonade back in April
(16) due to its country feel. Along with a horn intro, references
to Texas, an acoustic guitar and hand claps setting out the rhythm
and a story about the lessons she learned from her father and
former manager Matthew Knowles, Daddy Lessons had all the markings
of a country hit - a drastic departure from Beyonce's usual
sound.
Country star Dierks Bentley said of the song after hearing
Lemonade: "There is just something intangible about it that it
feels like a country song. It's not just choruses that are catchy
and verses that could be intermixed anywhere as some pop songs are.
It's a real story that she tells about what's going on in her life
growing up."
Beyonce's performance alongside the Dixie Chicks on Wednesday night
proved such a hit with fans and viewers that it topped the
Billboard + Twitter Trending 140 chart - a chart which measures the
real-time increase of discussions around artists and their music on
Twitter.
Shortly after the CMA performance, the Dixie Chicks - Natalie
Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire - also took to Twitter to
share a link to an official studio version of their duet with
Beyonce on Daddy Lessons.
It marks a rare studio offering from the country trio, who haven't
released a studio album since Taking the Long Way in 2006.
While the majority of people enjoyed Beyonce's performance with the
Dixie Chicks, a shot of Kenny Chesney looking less than impressed
as he witnessed the rendition from the audience quickly went viral,
with viewers commenting on his "sour" looking expression.