Kacey Musgraves had more than music on her mind during her Dallas concert. The country singer took aim at Christopher Columbus in a blunt onstage moment, calling him a “loser” after an exchange with the crowd about Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The clip quickly sparked competing reactions online, with critics telling Musgraves to stick to singing while supporters applauded her for speaking out.
Her comments also came amid a separate clash with Kristi Noem, which saw the singer fire back with a pointed reference to Noem’s admission that she shot her dog.
Kacey Musgraves Takes Aim At Columbus During Dallas Show
Musgraves made the remarks while performing at the American Airlines Center in Dallas during her Middle of Nowhere tour. Video of the moment showed the 38-year-old addressing the audience while wearing a sparkly leotard and cowboy hat.
“Yeah, that’s right, on this day? What day?” she asked.
The crowd responded with “Indigenous Peoples’ Day!”
Musgraves followed with a profanity-laced assessment of Columbus that left little doubt about where she stood. “Obviously f-ck Columbus,” she said bluntly. “Literally the lamest person to probably ever exist. Like for real. What a loser.”
She continued her criticism with another direct jab. “What a loser Christopher Columbus, we hate you!”
Critics Tell Musgraves To ‘Shut Up And Sing’
Some viewers were unimpressed with Musgraves using her stage to deliver the comments. One response challenged her criticism by tying Columbus’s legacy to her own career in America. “No Columbus, no ocean crossing, no America for a Texas girl to get rich singing in,” they wrote. “The lamest man to ever exist is the whole reason Kacey Musgraves has a stage to curse him from.”
Another questioned how much she knew about the explorer. “I wonder how much she has studied Columbus, or is she just repeating the latest social criticism?”
Other complaints focused on whether a concert was the place for the discussion. “I hate it when entertainers think we care about their political views. Automatically isolates a large portion of their audience.”
Another commenter delivered a shorter dismissal, “Omg just shut up and sing girl nobody is there to listen to anything other than your songs.”
- Kacey Musgraves’s stage caught fire during a performance.
- The singer also quietly canceled three concerts without offering an explanation.
- Musgraves brought her charitable side to the tour with a special birthday wish request.
- Meanwhile, she faced backlash over a reply to clothing line complaints that critics called “rude.”
The Onstage Moment Follows A Clash With Kristi Noem
Musgraves’s Columbus comments arrived as another exchange involving the singer was already attracting attention. The dispute began after Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico posted about attending her Dallas concert, sharing a photo with Musgraves and thanking her for having him at the show.
Noem reposted his message and used it to endorse both another country singer and Talarico’s political opponent. “I’ll take @ellalangleymsic over Kacey Musgraves any day. And if I’m choosin’ Texas, I’ll take Ken Paxton over James Talarico,” she wrote.
Musgraves responded with a dog-related comeback aimed squarely at Noem. “I don’t think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it.”
The reply referenced the story about Noem’s dog, Cricket, that drew widespread backlash when it emerged in 2024. Although Noem brought Ella Langley into her post, Langley has not yet responded to the exchange.
Musgraves’s Comeback References Noem’s Controversial Dog Story
Noem described shooting her 14-month-old dog in her 2024 book, explaining that she considered Cricket “untrainable.”
According to her account, the dog disrupted a hunting trip, later killed chickens belonging to another family and bit her. “I hated that dog,” Noem wrote. “At that moment, I realized I had to put her down.”
Noem recalled taking Cricket to a gravel pit and shooting her. The disclosure prompted criticism, which she addressed publicly. “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm,” she wrote on X.
She also defended the decision by citing the dog’s behavior and said she had acted responsibly.
Kacey Musgraves Is Back Onstage With Her Middle Of Nowhere Tour
Musgraves’s Middle of Nowhere tour is heading into its final stretch, with a Denver show scheduled for October 13 and a Salt Lake City stop on October 15. The North American run is set to close with two nights at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on October 26 and 27, featuring support from the Brudi Brothers.
The tour supports her album “Middle of Nowhere,” released May 1, which features collaborations with Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Billy Strings and Gregory Alan Isakov. Written during a period of reflection after a breakup, the record brings together pedal steel, accordion and Texas dancehall rhythms.