You know I will never be a fan of country music, but last night I finally saw The Dixie Chicks movie ‘Shut Up And Sing’ on DVD and I was very moved. Now this is really old news if you’re an American, but basically the documentary is about how the girls were banished from Country music radio because of a comment lead vocalist Natalie said in London’s Shepherds Bush Empire about how she was ashamed George Bush was from the same state of Texas that she is from. What transpired in America following that insignificant comment was preposterous. Dixie Chicks CDs were being destroyed by fans, country radio banned them, death threats to Natalie were made during their US Tour, ticket sales plummeted and the general consensus of the American public was that the girls should just "shut up and sing".
This documentary speaks novels about freedom of speech and it was quite moving and emotional to watch last night. I cried. I urge you all to watch this documentary – even though it’s a few years old now, you should make an effort to see it if you haven’t. It truly made me, a country music hater, to believe that no matter what genre the music is, we all have the right to say what we want and to believe what we want. I am proud to be a fan of The Dixie Chicks now. I think what they did was heroic and most of all, they took a stand for their beliefs, they stuck together and I applaud them madly while proudly playing their last cd on my iPod.