The Country Music Association is pushing back on reports it deleted social media posts about a performance by Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks at this week’s CMA Awards.
Despite heavy promotion of the performance during Wednesday’s show, TMZ reported Thursday that the association removed posts about Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks from its official social media accounts after receiving racist comments in response.
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the CMA Awards refuted that report.
“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 read.
In an interview with the New York Times, the chief executive of the Country Music Association, Sarah Trahern, said Beyoncé had provided her own photographer for the show and only approved one video of the performance to be posted.
“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,” the statement to CNN concluded.
Many of the comments on the link to the performance on the CMA Facebook page, which was posted Thursday, are negative. Several could be characterized as racist.
The Dixie Chicks took to Twitter in the midst of the controversy and posted a clip of the song and wrote: “If we all turn this up really loud, together we can drown out the hate.”
CNN has reached out to Beyoncé’s camp who was not immediately available for comment.