AMAs 2019: Taylor Swift Seemingly Pays Tribute to Dixie Chicks During ‘Artist of the Decade’ Performance

Taylor Swift paid subtle tribute to her “Soon You’ll Get Better” collaborators, the Dixie Chicks, during her Artist of the Decade performance at the 2019 American Music Awards Sunday night. Taking the stage at the Microsoft Theater following an introduction from Carole King, the 29-year-old songstress performed a medley of her hits throughout the decade, kicking the performance off with “The Man,” a song from her latest album, Lover.

Donning a white jacket with the names of her past six albums in bold black print, Swift’s first outfit of the performance was seemingly inspired by the Dixie Chicks’ now–famous Entertainment Weekly cover from 2003, in which in turn became the cover for the 2006 documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing.

In the image, Martie Erwin Maguire, Emily Erwin Robison, and Natalie Maines posed nude (covered only by white sheets for the documentary cover) with the words “Traitors,” “Boycott,” “Big Mouth,” “Opinionated,” and others written on their bodies in the same black font as the one used on Swift’s outfit.

In the Entertainment Weekly story, the Dixie Chicks opened up about Maines’ infamous remark about President Bush and the backlash that followed.

“We don’t want people to think that we’re trying to be provocative. It’s not about the nakedness. It’s that the clothes got in the way of the labels,” Maines said. “We’re not defined by who we are anymore. Other people are doing that for us.”

Similarly, Swift’s Sunday night performance came amid a bout of ongoing drama with her former record label, Big Machine Records. After Scooter Braun acquired the record label, along with Swift’s entire back catalogue of music, over the summer, Swift last week accused Braun and Scott Borchetta of forbidding her from performing any of her old tracks, leaving the fate of her AMA’s performance in limbo.

Responding to the allegations, Big Machine Records accused Swift of spreading “false information,” stating that they “do not have the right to keep her from performing live” and that “have continued to honor all of her requests to license her catalog to third parties as she promotes her current record.”

Braun also later released a statement, alleging that he had received death threats amid the drama and publicly stating his permission for Swift to perform her songs.