Parton’s response to the controversy has divided internet users. While several people noted that they understood her statement, others pointed out that artist Post Malone — who, like Beyoncé, didn’t start out in country music — received numerous CMA nominations despite not having spent his whole life in the country field.
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“I get exactly what Dolly meant and she tried to keep it as positive as she can. but the problem here is that the ‘they probably only nominated country artists who been doing it for whole their career’ becomes invalid when you see they nominated Post Malone but not Beyonce,” one person tweeted.
“This would make sense if Post Malone wasn’t nominated,” someone else agreed, while a third user added, “right cos Posty does country all the time (not!!) and yet he had several noms.”