Country singer Kacey Musgraves launched into a bizarre, profanity-filled rant about Christopher Columbus during a concert in Dallas. Musgraves branded the explorer a “loser” while the crowd booed the mention of Columbus Day and shouted back that the following day was Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The exchange took place during Musgraves’ second show at the American Airlines Center over the holiday weekend. She eventually told the long-dead explorer, “We hate you.”
The incident happened Sunday night, one day before the federal Columbus Day observance on Monday, October 12th. Musgraves was performing as part of her “Middle of Nowhere Tour,” which brought the Texas-born singer through Houston, Austin, and Dallas in early October. During a break in the performance, she asked the audience whether the following day was Monday before realizing that it was Columbus Day. The crowd responded with boos and calls of “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
Musgraves initially appeared to work through the dates from the stage as audience members shouted back at her. “That’s right. Wait, no. Yeah, no, no, yeah,” she said. Once the crowd had corrected her description of the holiday, the singer immediately changed course and began attacking Columbus personally. Her response quickly moved beyond disagreement with the holiday itself.
“Actually, obviously, f— Columbus,” Musgraves said in the video. “Literally the lamest person to probably ever exist. Like, for real. What a loser! You’re a loser, Christopher Columbus. We hate you.” Libs of TikTok circulated the clip on Tuesday with the caption, “Singer Kacey Musgraves ATTACKED Columbus during her concert.”
The remarks came amid the continuing political dispute over the holiday honoring the Italian explorer whose 1492 voyage began sustained contact between Europe and the Americas. Columbus Day remains the federal name of the holiday, although some states, cities, and activist groups have replaced it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. As Fox News reported, the audience in Dallas used the latter name when responding to Musgraves.
The outburst came during the closing stretch of Musgraves’ North American arena tour supporting her album “Middle of Nowhere.” The tour launched in Chicago on August 21st, Musgraves’ 38th birthday, and included stops in New York, Nashville, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and several Texas cities. People reported that the album includes collaborations with Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Billy Strings, and Gregory Alan Isakov. The remaining tour schedule includes concerts in Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle.
The Columbus comments also followed several public displays of Musgraves’ left-wing political activism. Fox News reported that she previously encouraged fans to donate to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, an organization that advocates for immigrant children. During the Dallas weekend, Musgraves also welcomed Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico to one of her concerts before mocking former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a social-media exchange. Noem had responded to Talarico’s appearance by saying she preferred country singer Ella Langley and supported Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
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Watch Musgraves’ most recent controversial remarks here:
Users on X wasted no time in voicing their distaste for Musgraves’ comments, with one user saying, “Dead 500 years and still living rent-free in her head.” Another commented, “One thing she and Columbus do not have in common is nobody is going to be mentioning her existence ~500 years after she’s gone to hell.” A third added, “She’s playing sold-out shows in a country that exists because of the guy she’s cursing.” One seemed to sum up the feelings of many users, saying, “If I could get one wish, it would be all the people who believe we live on ‘Stolen’ land, would actually act on their convictions and just leave.”
Former White House domestic-policy aide Theo Wold pushed back on Musgraves’ description of Columbus in remarks to Fox News Digital. Wold criticized the historical knowledge behind the singer’s attack and argued that widespread hostility toward Columbus reflects declining educational standards. He described Columbus as “a courageous adventurer and ahead-of-his-time navigator to whom we owe much of the prosperity we now enjoy.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.