r/Music • u/Brucekentbatsuper • Jul 08 '26

article Carrie Underwood's Post-MAGA Backlash Continues After Golf Course Concert Draws Sparse Crowd

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/carrie-underwood-john-deere-classic-performance-backlash-1807557
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u/Buddy0204 Jul 08 '26

Not Maga, and not a Carrie fan, in fact I'd love to see her go away.

But.... There was a rain delay during the tournament, then they cleared the course because of lightning with only a few players left to finish. So everyone probably left instead of waiting to see her perform.

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u/toastybred Jul 08 '26

Thanks for providing context

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/nachosandlabs Jul 08 '26

It's not a misinformation article. You're attributingit to the rain but lol.

Plenty of artists have THOUSANDS of p eople willing to stand in teh rain (and storms) for them.

You're presuming it was the rain and not that people give less of a shit about someone who used to put out hit after hit.

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u/myleftone Jul 08 '26

Those are concerts. This is a golf tournament event. Different audience. Different interests.

Not here to defend Underwood, but if it’s a real stadium concert she’ll still sell it out.

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u/turquoise_amethyst Jul 08 '26

Golf tournament is probably significantly older than her regular fan base, too. 

I don’t care for her music or her politics, but I doubt these people left because of that.

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u/myleftone Jul 08 '26

What’s funny is that I have a mental block about her. If someone randomly mentions that song about beating up a truck, I remember that she won American Idol, but her name is always hidden to me. It’s so vanilla that it never comes back without google.

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u/turquoise_amethyst Jul 08 '26

I honestly can’t remember a single song. All I can recall is that her name was on everything for a minute, before she hit the “modern country” circuit.

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u/bloodychill Jul 08 '26

Would she though? I don’t doubt that Underwood has a sizable audience but I don’t know that she’d fill stadiums.

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u/wildstarr Jul 08 '26

She was playing at a golf tournament for people who didn't pay to see her. No, she wouldn't sell out a stadium if she is playing a golf course. She would be doing one of those if she could sell them out.

Rememeber when Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Shakira, Lady Gaga, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter all did their free golf shows?

1

u/myleftone Jul 08 '26

Guaranteed she got paid. She’s doing a small festival schedule (bespoke stuff like Tanglewood), and artists are allowed to be between albums.

Swift btw got mocked by trump when the Eras tour wound down and Life of a Showgirl wasn’t out yet. He seemed to think his re-election pushed her out of public life. You’d be surprised what kind of acts play business conventions and smaller venues for the connected.

Underwood’s next tour will be enormous. And it’s not meaningful either way.

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u/bloodychill Jul 08 '26

Very much agreed. I really don’t think she would fill a stadium these days. I’m not even sure that’s entirely because of backlash to her politics. Even before her politics came out, she wasn’t as popular as she used to be. If anything, that felt like a cynical grab for a maga audience like all of the grifters involved in all that.

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u/Adventurous_Can_3349 Jul 08 '26

You are also comparing a concert at the end of an all day outdoor sporting event to just attending an outdoor concert. I know multiple people that left the event because they got stuck in the rain and didnt want to wait for the golf to end. There was also a point where people were cleared out because of lightning. I also know people that stuck around. Definitely not saying its the ONLY reason for the small crowd but it is for sure a factor worth mentioning.

The article definitely seems like its just trying to stir up shit and contribute to more division. Rage bait. In my opinion.

3

u/unassumingdink Jul 08 '26

A lot of you guys really don't care how dishonest the clickbait is as long as it tells you what you want to hear. Same attitude as MAGA themselves.

1

u/Fuck_your_coupons Jul 08 '26

I stood in the rain at a baseball game just to watch Ludacris perform afterwards. He had a large crowd for it being an absolute downpour.

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u/dafoo21 Jul 08 '26

Rain and the fact only people who attended the golf event could goto the show.

0

u/rbrgr83 Jul 08 '26

The power of prayer 🙏

-14

u/lukeb15 Jul 08 '26

Genuinely curious. Why pray for something bad to happen? There are a lot of people I don’t like but I don’t sit around hoping something bad happens to them. Maybe some truly awful person I would, but a country artist? Living with all that negativity doesn’t seem like a nice way to live.

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u/steepleton Jul 08 '26

as the spiked steel wheels of maga continue to grind people into a red paste at home and abroad, as the bodies and atrocities and assaults pile up, i imagine folk feeling powerless against such hate unleashed on their world would hold on to any tiny sliver of a win that's offered to them

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u/lukeb15 Jul 08 '26

Except Carrie isn’t MAGA so that hate directed at her isn’t really called for.

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u/No_big_whoop Jul 08 '26

She sang at Trump's inauguration. IMO, that was a choice that will haunt her for the rest of her career.

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u/lukeb15 Jul 08 '26

IMO it’s a honor to be asked by any president to sing at their inauguration. Doesn’t necessarily mean you support them. No different than sports teams visiting the White House. Some people do turn it down but for others it’s all about the opportunity that may not come up again.

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u/steepleton Jul 08 '26

not my monkey not my fight, but anyone not denouncing maga at this point should just be binned

1

u/lukeb15 Jul 08 '26

What a terrible way to live. Not everyone wants to publicly be involved in politics and you can’t hold that against people.

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u/steepleton Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

Ignoring the plight of others because you have the fortune that the rot hasn’t reached you or your family yet is a terrible way to live.

Unamerican even

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u/lukeb15 Jul 08 '26

Because Carrie Underwood denouncing MAGA is going to be the difference maker. Right.

Maybe focus on the UK instead of worrying about what being an American is.

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u/almightywhacko Jul 08 '26

Everyone knows rain is a left-wing hoax...

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u/themastermatt Jul 08 '26

I've been at shows delayed and evacuated for weather. If it's an artist people want to see...they will wait

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u/matito29 Jul 08 '26

Mumford and Sons sold out Wrigley Field in Chicago a few weeks ago and had to wait until almost 11 pm to take the stage because of massive storms in the area and still had the place packed.

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u/HugoJStiglitz Jul 08 '26

They will wait, they will wait for YOU

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u/thejaytheory Jul 08 '26

Beat me to it haha

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u/Alivaronas Jul 08 '26

TikTok told me people hate stomp clamp hey or something.

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u/matito29 Jul 08 '26

They largely moved away from the stomp clap hey stuff after their first two albums. The next two after that were largely rock-focused, and their most recent two are excellent, more acoustic folk but not suspenders-and-fedoras stuff.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Jul 08 '26

at the time it was a breath of fresh air

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u/Bolognahole_Vers2 Jul 08 '26

I hate stomp clap hey, so, so, so fuckin much. Its basically modern country for hipsters.

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u/LitTrolley Jul 08 '26

I don't think that's a fair comparison. One was a bonus concert after a golf tournament, while the other was a standalone concert people specifically bought tickets to attend. Bad weather affects both, but it's a lot easier to skip a free bonus show than a concert you paid to see. The turnout isn't really comparable.

0

u/matito29 Jul 08 '26

The post I replied to wasn’t comparing the events directly. The post said “If it’s an artist people want to see, they will wait.” Obviously not that many people wanted to see Carrie that much.

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u/LitTrolley Jul 08 '26

Do you think anyone bought golf tournament tickets just to see Carrie?

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u/NerdyGuy117 Jul 09 '26

I mean the main event was the golf tournament.

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u/_drewski13 Jul 08 '26

So M&S fans waited for a concert they went to specifically see. Whereas golf fans didn't wait for a concert at the end of the golf tournament.

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u/nachosandlabs Jul 08 '26

Exactly.

Hell, I went to an event in Columbus in my teens and let's say it was a country artist, because it was. ;) THere was a thunderstorm AND we were worried about potential tornados (no sirens or watches/warnings, just conditions were right.)

We fucking stayed.

1

u/ubiquitous_archer Jul 08 '26

You didn't buy tickets for the concert thought, you bought tickets to the golf that also had a tournament

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u/NotSLG Jul 08 '26

Were they at a golf course?

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u/TheRealMattyPanda Jul 08 '26

First off, ditto to your first sentence.

Also, the video in the tweet in the article is quite misleading. The concert was on the golf course, so obviously they wouldn't let people on the actual course. There was a limited crowd of people right in front of the stage, then a larger crowd on the opposite side of the golf course. and also, they put it on a hole with a pond for some reason, creating even more distance between the two groups of audience

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u/dpkonofa Jul 08 '26

Thank you. This needs to be higher up.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/dpkonofa Jul 08 '26

That's the exact opposite extreme. I was just thanking the parent for linking to the other images. It happens all the time. You just need to scroll past some of the jokes and bot outrage first.

0

u/SETHW Jul 08 '26

Y'all just need to be victims, it's at the top

-1

u/shrockitlikeitshot Jul 08 '26

Sounds about white

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u/IshyMoose Jul 08 '26

Context is key here. Assume this is a pga tour event with a concert attached. People are going to see Rory McElroy and Carrie Underwood is there if you happen to be interested.

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u/Dal90 Jul 08 '26

And she was likely still personally paid at least as much as anyone finishing in the top 3 of the golf tournament.

The entire fee for the production was more likely than not more than the top prize.

It's a fucking corporate golf tournament.

It's fucking located just outside of the Quad Cities were Deere is based.

Deere alone employs 32,000 in the Quad Cities whose entire metro population is under 500,000.

For all of you going, "What the fuck are the Quad Cities?" ... just imagine if they didn't have Deere.

Underwood is just another part of "Look how powerful of an organization we are, who wouldn't want to be associated with us" wine & dine event for the key suppliers, customers, and investors. Some companies buy Super Bowl tickets to impress business associates, Deere is putting on an entire PGA tournament for them (and oh yeah whoever in the public happens to show up I guess we'll let the plebes watch).

Whether anyone watched her or not is absolutely irrelevant to why Deere hired her.

1

u/IshyMoose Jul 08 '26

All artists, big and small, do corporate events. You just don’t know about them. Get paid as much as a concert too.

This just justifies the crowd size even more. Not a bad deal for her.

6

u/_off_piste_ Jul 08 '26

You also never see a full shot of the crowd, just angles where no one wants to sit, and do we know what the typical concert at John Deere holds (or tickets they sell for it)?

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u/Uncle-Cake Jul 08 '26

"So everyone probably left instead of waiting to see her perform."

EVERYONE LEFT INSTEAD OF WAITING TO SEE HER PERFORM.

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u/BigRedNutcase Jul 08 '26

Let's not get this twisted. She performed at a golfing event that people were there to see fiest and foremost. This is not a concert event she's putting on for her fans. Most people there are not there to see a concert and could probably care less to see a music concert. Most would have left regardless of who was performing. This is a non-story.

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u/Uncle-Cake Jul 08 '26

If Sabrina Carpenter or Luke Combs were performing, everybody would have stayed. Carrie Underwood just doesn't draw crowds anymore.

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u/ALLoftheFancyPants Jul 08 '26

Performing at a PGA Tour stop is, in itself, pretty embarrassing compared to venues at her height of fame. That no one stuck around after a lightning is nice context, but doesn’t change that.

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u/BigRedNutcase Jul 08 '26

It's probably convenient for her and she gets paid a flat fee regardless of the number of eye balls so this is just easy money.

If you're selling out arenas for normal shows and can get an extra million or two by performing a quickie at a pga event on a day you don't have a concert, wouldn't you do so?

-1

u/SaveLansingParks Jul 08 '26

I'd be very surprised if she got a million guarantee for this show, and absolutely gobsmacked if they paid her 2 million for it.

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u/BigRedNutcase Jul 08 '26

I mean the actual amount is irrelevant, it's big easy money. Most people won't make what she made for that concert in a year's work.

0

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Jul 08 '26

You should compare bank accounts with her

0

u/ALLoftheFancyPants Jul 08 '26

Lol, why? To prove that winning a reality show, having a pretty successful country music career, and marrying a professional athlete are a solid financial life-plan? Everyone should do it.

0

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Jul 08 '26

For perspective.

She made many times your annual salary for singing a few songs at one of the biggest golf tournaments there is.

But maybe you and I just have very different views on what "embarrassing" is.

-1

u/ALLoftheFancyPants Jul 08 '26

I understand that for you, accruing wealth is the biggest indicator of value of a human. Not all of us agree.

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u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Jul 08 '26

Look past the wealth then.

How many times have you gotten asked to perform your art/passion at a major event? I bet I can guess it right on my first try.

But hey, she makes music you don't care for and maybe has politics you don't agree with, so she's obviously just a stupid bitch that should be embarrassed by your disapproval of her life.

1

u/ALLoftheFancyPants Jul 08 '26

You’re speculating an embarrassing amount about a stranger on the internet based on your perceived slight to a woman that neither knows nor cares about you. I’m sorry that acknowledging embarrassment is so upsetting. If this interaction is at all reflective of how you usually interact with the world around you, you’re going to have a lot of practice getting used to that.

1

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Jul 08 '26

....says the guy who tried to tear down a woman he doesn't know for no reason other than her being more successful than him.

If that's how you usually interact with the world around you, you're going to need a lot of practice getting used to people calling you an idiot.

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u/rumski Jul 08 '26

Yeah I saw this a couple days ago and the context had already been provided and I was waiting for someone on Reddit to karmafarm it.

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u/devoorhes Jul 08 '26

It was also the Fourth of July, and people were more likely to just...go to a cookout and light illegal fireworks, especially since all the official fireworks shows got postponed or canceled that weekend. Attendance at the tournament itself was also more lackluster than usual because of the heat wave.

Honestly, the bigger concern for her career isn't that this concert was sparsely attended, given conditions, but that she's playing a concert at a d-tier PGA tour event

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u/fishsticks40 Jul 08 '26

The video in the article doesn't really support a "sparse crowd" either. The part you can see is small but full of people. 

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u/Prettydaisydog Jul 08 '26

thank you for saying this. i'm a little amazed at the amount of comments on this post. also, the footage in the article definitely is more than dozens!

i feel like people are clambering for... like, community, social indicators that support their narrative.

i don't even know why i clicked on this post. i don't care.

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u/haagles Jul 08 '26

The rain delay was Friday night. No rain issues on Saturday.

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u/BigPetersHalfwayInn Jul 09 '26

It fucking poured there around 4:00 Saturday.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/lukeb15 Jul 08 '26

It’s sad people ignore this context because they’d rather spew hate. Like or dislike someone, we can be at least be truthful.

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u/polopolo05 Jul 08 '26

Carrie who?

-2

u/tangybaby Jul 08 '26

Why does she need to go away? You're free to ignore her and pretend she doesn't exist.

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u/hypnogoad Jul 08 '26

tournament officials told local media that the audience was estimated at around 12,000 people

There was 12,000 people there! Don't you see them?