“Woke Slop”: Country Singer Kacey Musgraves Gets Called Out for Being Paid to “Push liberal Propaganda” and “Wokeness”

Country star Kacey Musgraves is facing boycott calls over her recent wading into the immigration debate during a live performance on her birthday, months after she was branded “woke slop” and accused of being paid to “push liberal propaganda.” Musgraves stopped a Chicago concert to solicit donations for children whose parents she said had been deported “unfairly,” insisting that her appeal wasn’t political. Some critics have since rejected her characterization, removed her music from their playlists alongside rejecting her immigration message, and accused Nashville of using country stars to advance increasingly liberal causes.

Musgraves made the request on August 21st while opening her “Middle of Nowhere” tour at Chicago’s United Center. The performance fell on her 38th birthday, and she told concertgoers that her birthday wish was for them to support the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The Chicago-based organization assists unaccompanied and separated migrant children through attorneys, social workers, and volunteer advocates.

“It’s a wonderful organization,” Musgraves told the audience, explaining that it helps “children whose parents have been deported unfairly.” She attempted to separate the appeal from the national immigration fight, insisting, “It’s not a political thing” and saying “these kids need help.” Musgraves suggested that fans contribute whatever amount they wanted, saying, “So anyway, 50 cents, whatever the hell, I don’t know, whatever you want to do but that would mean a lot to me.”

The remarks drew applause inside the arena and an angry reaction online. As we’ve previously reported, critics challenged Musgraves’ description of deportations as unfair, announced that they were removing her music from their playlists, and called for a broader boycott. Others questioned why wealthy entertainers would ask ticket-buying fans to finance political causes instead of just quietly contributing their own money.

Musgraves’ birthday donation appeal was part of her existing support for the Young Center. Earlier in 2026, she arranged for clothing from her tours and music videos to be sold through Depop, with the proceeds benefiting the organization. She also invited three young mariachi performers, brothers Antonio, Caleb, and Joshua Gámez-Cuéllar, to open three Texas concerts after their family was released from federal immigration custody.

Watch Musgraves make the appeal here:

Musgraves had already landed herself in a political fight months earlier during Super Bowl LX. After Bad Bunny performed the official halftime show, she wrote, “Well. That made me feel more proudly American than anything Kid Rock has ever done,” taking a swipe at the Trump-supporting singer who headlined Turning Point USA’s alternative halftime show. The remark drew a response roughly four hours later branding Musgraves “woke slop” and accusing a label of paying her to “push liberal propaganda.” The post also attacked Musgraves’ reliance on other people to write her music and argued that major Nashville artists are being used to push the country music industry more leftward.

Musgraves has songwriting credits, but she rarely writes alone. The FADER reported in 2015 that Shane McAnally, Luke Laird, Brandy Clark, and Josh Osborne appeared in different combinations across nearly every Musgraves song on the first two major-label albums discussed in its profile. Those aren’t just a few guest contributions scattered throughout her early career, but rather a stable of professional Nashville writers who helped create the songs that built Musgraves’ reputation as a songwriter.

It is the same basic model long used with pop stars such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, where a star might bring in an idea, change a lyric, or help shape a melody, but the finished song is created with professional co-writers and producers. Musgraves’ own writing credits don’t reveal how much of any particular song came from her versus how much came from the other writers, but they do show that most of the music released under her name was not written by her alone.

Progressive activism has become more visible within Nashville’s professional music community, with more than 30 performers participating in the 2023 “Love Rising” concert at Bridgestone Arena to oppose Tennessee legislation concerning drag performances and LGBT issues. Musgraves’ use of a major-label platform for progressive themes stretches back to 2013’s “Follow Your Arrow,” a song containing approving references to same-sex relationships and marijuana use that Mercury Nashville released before the Country Music Association named it Song of the Year in 2014.

Featured image credit: Andy Witchger, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons