Did Beyonce try to convince such singers as Oliver Anthony and Kid Rock to share the stage with her by offering them money? No, that's not true: The claims came from self-described satire sources known for mass-producing false stories. There were no credible news reports confirming these claims.
The story originated from a post (archived here) on Facebook by "America's Last Line of Defense" on May 19, 2024. It showed an image of Beyonce with a bottom banner that read:
Oliver Anthony Turns Down $20 Million Offer to Let Beyoncè On
Stage for Ten minutes: 'I Don't Think the Audience Would Approve'
Beyonce and her husband have been trying desperately to pay her way on stage with actual country stars.
'They just showed up with a briefcase full of payola,' said Anthony, 'That's not how I operate.'
Good for you, Oliver! Your soul is worth more than an amount of money.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu May 23 13:10:00 2024 UTC)
The America's Last Line of Defense page on Facebook (archived here), also known as ALLOD, declares:
The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery.
Nothing on this page is real.
Oliver Anthony (archived here), whose real name is Christopher Lunsford, is a country musician from Virginia whose controversy-causing song about working-class men, in part referencing conspiracy theories, went viral in 2023. Though his work has been largely embraced by the far-right crowd, Anthony denies he is partisan.
Another variation of the claim (archived here), also published by ALLOD, stated Beyonce offered money to rapper Kid Rock (archived here) as well. A MAGA supporter, he is another musician whose work has been intertwined with even more controversies detailed, for example, in the 2024 Rolling Stone profile (archived here).
Both claims went online after Beyonce had released her "Cowboy Carter" album featuring country music. In response, commentators on social media clashed over whether Beyonce is cowboy enough to perform in this genre . This has a substantial historical context behind it, which is explained, for example, in the 2024 Time article (archived here).
Google searches for the purported quotes from male singers cited in the posts (archived here and here) showed no credible sources corroborating the claims.
About ALLOD
America's Last Line of Defense is a network of satire websites started by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair (archived here) from Maine, also known as "Busta Troll," along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
The pages on Facebook that are affiliated with ALLOD show satire disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
At the same time, Blair's claims often reuse a standard news report structure, which makes some believe those stories are real. Lead Stories extensively wrote about that.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who omit the satire disclaimer and other hints the stories are fake. One of the most persistent networks of such sites is run by a man from Pakistan named Kashif Shahzad Khokhar (aka "DashiKashi") who has spammed hundreds of such stolen stories into conservative and right-wing Facebook pages in order to profit from the ad revenue.
When fact checkers point this out to the people liking and sharing these copycat stories some of them get mad at the fact checkers instead of directing their anger at the foreign spammers or the liberal satire writers. Others send a polite "thank you" note, which is much appreciated.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of the claims that originated from ALLOD websites can be found here. Stories about entertainment are here.
