Watching Reba McEntire’s and Darius Rucker’s opening remarks at the Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday night, it was hard not to be reminded of a different performance entirely: Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga at the MTV VMAs this summer. Why? Because, unlike McEntire and Rucker, Grande and Gaga were wearing freaking masks. Look, this isn’t meant to be delivered from some high horse, and maybe everyone at the CMAs had the cleanest bills of health you’ve ever seen, but in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, watching any group of people gather in a room without face coverings is downright anxiety-inducing.
Perhaps it’s that short-sightedness that made the CMAs so uncomfortable to watch. McEntire is a legend in country music—and music in general—and watching her crack jokes about social distancing and sweatpants kinda felt like watching Nero fiddle. The US is currently breaking records for coronavirus hospitalizations, and the number of new cases being reported each day is inching toward 150,000. Several performers, including Lee Brice and a member of Rascal Flatts, had to cancel after positive Covid-19 tests, and even though the CMA producers were, according to a statement, “extremely diligent with our testing process in advance of anyone entering our footprint,” it still seems that the safest route would’ve been to not sit a bunch of maskless artists in a ballroom.
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