Why Jessica Simpson was booed by country music fans

What happened

Jessica Simpson was booed on Saturday as she took the stage for her debut country music performance at the Country Thunder USA Festival in Twin Lakes, Wisc. Simpson responded to the crowd by saying, “I don't know what your perception is of Jessica Simpson or what tabloid you buy, but I just want you to know that I’m just a girl from Texas; I’m just like you.” (AP in FoxNews.com)

What the commentators said

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“Now that Jessica Simpson’s much-hyped acting career is lying twitching in the gutter,” said Stuart Heritage in the blog Heckler Spray, she’s giving country music a shot. But she should have realized “that anyone who’d attend something called the Country Thunder USA Festival would be able to sniff out a fake” immediately.

But her first country single “Come On Over” is doing well on the charts, said Gil Kaufman in MTV.com, “and she looks cute in short shorts and boots.” And you have to give Simpson credit: She didn’t let the crowd’s negative reaction “rattle her”—she even “vowed at the end of her set that she has no plans ever to record another pop album. Take that, y’all.”

It’s going to take more than “cut off jean shorts and some high heel cowboy boots” for Simpson to win over country music fans, said The Grumpiest blog. She may have experience in the pop world, but it takes years to get good at country.