Kelsea Ballerini and Kacey Musgraves are 100% done with the crappy reasons of why country radio stations won’t play female artists back to back.
In a series of tweets this morning (January 16), writer Chris Willman noticed that two female artists WERE played back to back on 105.1 in Los Angeles.
“I turned on the 105.1 country station in L.A. just now, and they were playing the new song by Gabby Barrett, and then, without any pause or interruption at all, they went into a Kelsea Ballerini song. Can’t they get fined for that?” he wrote.
Another station, 98.6 KCQ, which is based all the way across the county in Michigan, replied that their station can not do that.
“I applaud their courage,” the station wrote in a now deleted tweet.
Kelsea, Kacey, fans, and more female artists took notice of the exchange and proceeded to call these “rules” out.
“To all the ladies that bust their asses to have half the opportunities that men do, I’m really sorry that in 2020, after YEARS of conversation of equal play, there are still some companies that make their stations play by these rules. It’s unfair and it’s incredibly disappointing,” Kelsea wrote.
She added, “AlEXA PLAY LBT LADY A CARRIE MIRANDA KACEY CARLY GABBY MAREN INGRID RUNAWAY JUNE M&T LAUREN. ALL IN A ROW. AND ALSO ME. hahaha. AND LINDSAY AND ASHLEY AND WHOEVER ELSE IM FORGETTING BECAUSE I NEED MORE COFFEE TO DEAL.”
Cassadee Pope, who was also following the conversation, noted another comment by the station that makes us all queasy.
“Pop audiences are more welcoming and forgiving of their female singers. I kinda like that. The Country audience not so much. They accepted Taylor [Swift] because their daughters loved her.”
Is there an all-female country station that we can listen to now?
The station did reply to the artists and defend itself, saying that “we have added more females to the playlist in the last year than in the years prior.”
See what Kacey said about the exchange below:
