How Carrie Underwood's Reported Diva Behavior Put A Sour Note On Her Inaugural Moment

Carrie Underwood surprised some fans and pleased others upon announcing that she would perform at President Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20. The country singer defended the controversial choice, writing in a statement, "I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future," per MSNBC. Yet, while Underwood may have claimed that a wish for unity was at the core of her choice, her reported behavior indicates that attention and the spotlight may have been the real reason. And, from the sound of it, she didn't get what she wanted. 

Despite a row of the world's richest tech bros sitting front and center at the inauguration, technical difficulties required that Underwood switch gears at the last second before showtime. This left her unexpectedly singing "America The Beautiful" a capella. A source told the Daily Mail that Underwood was unhappy about the performance. Her biggest gripe, however, apparently wasn't the technical problems. Instead, it was how she was treated. 

"She felt as if she was ushered in and out and had a mini hissy fit afterwards," the source said, noting that she "was dissatisfied with her performance at the event, primarily due to the limited space she was given, which left her feeling cramped and uncomfortable." Underwood seemingly thought she wasn't treated like the superstar she is, which shows that, while she preaches "unity," she may think she's more important than everyone else.

The choice to sing at Donald Trump's second inauguration was surely one of Carrie Underwood's most controversial moments of all time. And, it seems that she was expecting to see more superstar treatment than backlash. "She is used to playing at massive venues with a stage to herself. She was not given a stage or a platform even," the source told the Daily Mail. And, apparently, she wished her treatment was more like that of some other stars. The source noted that "she felt that she was not afforded the same level of respect or admiration that previous performers, such as Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, had received."

If this was Underwood's take, we can only imagine how much it hurts that one tweet on X, formerly known as Twitter compared her performance to Beyoncé singing the same song with the caption, "this is how you do it." The tweet raked in 40,000 likes in less than 24 hours. To make matters worse, as far as some folks are concerned, Underwood certainly can't escape plastic surgery rumors. One X user joked, "Trumper Carrie Underwood is set to sing America the Beautiful at the felon's inauguration – because plastic surgery doesn't pay for itself." Surely this isn't the discourse surrounding her performance that she hoped for. But, hopefully she can find a way to look on the bright side; at least she didn't make the Trump inauguration's worst-dressed list.