Beyoncé wasn’t banned from the Grand Ole Opry

The Grand Ole Opry has a complicated history with Black musicians, but has the Nashville, Tennessee, country mecca really banned Beyoncé?

That’s what a May 19 Facebook post’s caption claims, saying, "Breaking News: The Grand Ole Opry Bans Beyoncé For Life, "‘Go Play Dress-Up, You’re Not Country.’"

But the release of Beyoncé’s new country-inspired album, "Cowboy Carter," has not prompted a ban from the Grand Ole Opry, a storied live music venue.

It has inspired many fake claims, such as this one we’ve already checked claiming that "Jay-Z paid more than $20 million to country radio stations to play Beyoncé songs so she’d top the Billboard country charts."

That story originated on a self-described satire site, and so did this claim about an Opry ban.

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The post’s caption also says "full story" with two emojis pointing toward comments containing a link under a photo of Beyoncé, the Grand Ole Opry and a repeat of the lifetime ban claim.

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stated on April 13, 2020 in a Facebook post

“Corona is so bad, this guy died twice!”

The link led to a May 15 post on a site titled "DM Newsfeed," which said the Grand Ole Opry had decided her "musical style and image" were "incompatible with the Opry’s definition of country music."  

But this story was poached from another blog — "Esspots" — which identified the article as "satire." The site describes itself as "your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary." The Facebook post reshared the story without the satire label.

In the real world, we found no evidence that the Opry banned Beyoncé — no credible news stories, no statements or press releases from the Opry, and no heated social media debate.

We rate claims that Beyoncé was banned from the Opry Pants on Fire!