Martina McBride Stands Up for Female Artists After Radio Consultant Claims Country Fans Prefer Songs by Men

"Do you not like to hear other women singing about what you are going through as women? I'm really curious," country star asks her fans on Facebook

Martina McBride isn't taking this guy's talk of lettuce and tomatoes with a grain of salt.

"Trust me, I play great female records and we've got some right now; they're just not the lettuce in our salad," said radio consultant Keith Hill in an interview with Country Aircheck, a Nashville-based industry journal. "The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females."

The answer to how to get more listeners? "If you want to make ratings in Country radio, take females out," Hill advised.

 Yeah, that didn't sit too well with McBride, who's sold more than 14 million albums in the U.S.

Wow.....just wow. Just read this from a major country radio publication. How do you feel about this statement? I...

Posted by Martina McBride on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

McBride took to Facebook to address Hill's comments, writing, "Wow.....just wow. Just read this from a major country radio publication. How do you feel about this statement? I especially want to hear from the females.

"Do you not like to hear other women singing about what you are going through as women? I'm really curious," she continued. "Because to me, country music is about relating. Someone relating to what you are really going through on a day to day basis in your life. Did you girls (core female listeners) know you were being 'assessed' in this way? Is this how you really feel? Hmmm...."

And she wasn't afraid to pass on what Hill was claiming, including the following excerpt from the Country Aircheck interview in her post:

"If you want to make ratings in Country radio, take females out," Hill was quoted as saying. "The reason is mainstream Country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70 to 75%, and women like male artists. I'm basing that not only on music tests from over the years, but more than 300 client radio stations. The expectation is we're principally a male format with a smaller female component. I've got about 40 music databases in front of me and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19%."

Then came the silly salad metaphor.