What should have been a triumphant moment for the country star quickly spiraled into online controversy after eagle-eyed viewers noticed something strange hidden throughout her grocery store-themed stage set

Kacey Musgraves gets backlash for her ACM performance, but for an unexpected reason (Photo Credit: Rich Polk/Dick Clark Productions via Getty Images)

Kacey Musgraves’ “Dry Spell” Performance At The ACM Made Waves

Kacey Musgraves received some unexpected backlash after her ACM performance debut on Sunday (May 17).

It’s hard to believe that after winning Album of the Year (twice) and Female Artist of the Year at past ACM Awards, Kacey Musgraves has never performed at the award show until this year!

She sang “Dry Spell,” her first single off her new album Middle of Nowhere. “Dry Spell” is a cheeky song about her love life being non-existent for the last year.

“Ain’t nobody’s tool up in my shed / Ain’t nobody’s boots under my bed,” she sang.

Her performance was more or less a recreation of her music video, which took place at a grocery store. Her rhinestoned Daisy Dukes, paired with her song’s innuendos, the stage props, and certain camera angles had some viewers at home clutching their pearls.

Kacey Musgraves performs onstage at The 61st Academy of Country Music Awards held at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 17, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Kacey Musgraves performs onstage at The 61st Academy of Country Music Awards held at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 17, 2026. (Photo by Rich Polk/Dick Clark Productions via Getty Images)

Watch her “Dry Spell” performance below.

While she did receive some comments about the innuendos and risqué nature of the performance, the latest chatter about it has nothing to do with that at all.

What Are People So Angry About?

It turns out, the grocery store signs had people in a tizzy! People are accusing her of using AI posters on the stage set. The signs used featured song titles from her catalog including “The Architect,” and “Follow Your Arrow.”

Kacey Musgraves' ACM performance is receiving backlash for the grocery store posters on the stage
Kacey Musgraves’ ACM performance is receiving backlash for the grocery store posters on the stage (Photo Credit: ACM – Academy of Country Music / YouTube)

Fans also noticed that one of the signs read, “Freash Deals,” instead of “Fresh Deals.”

Eagle-eyed fans noticed one of the signs on Kacey Musgraves' stage set was misspelled
Eagle-eyed fans noticed one of the signs on Kacey Musgraves’ stage set was misspelled (Photo Credit: ACM – Academy of Country Music / YouTube)

This led to people to analyze the other posters, which people believed were created using AI instead of actual artists.

See fan comments about the posters below.

“Why all the AI décor Kacey”

“Are those posters AI? 🥴”

“Love Kacey but the ai graphics aren’t the vibe”

“The grocery store signs were almost as good as the song.”

“All the background subliminal messages.”

“Love everything except the corny AI generated flyers”

“I hope so bad that’s a human typo and not AI on the “FREASH” sign” @spaceykacey”

“Love this, but guys if we’re supporting artists they should also be supporting artists. Absolutely no reason to have terrible AI graphics on the set.”

“did we not have a budget for a proper artist for the background posters 😩 so disappointing to see AI used on this set”

“Unfortunately they are textbook AI generated posters haha. It’s possible they aren’t but if that’s the case then they are mid”

“fresh is misspelled. it’s not supposed to say freash. I know the references. doesn’t need to be AI.”

“The AI signs ugh”

These comments were from the ACM’s Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok accounts.

What do you think of the backlash? Let us know in the comments.

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