Tomato-gate

Don't worry babe. I see an opportunity here. (A) big ole vagina-shaped opportunity.

— Tomato-gate

Whether or not a song gets airplay should be based on how good the SONG is…not whether it’s sung by a male or female. It’s kind of like comparing tall artists to short artists, blondes to brunettes, bald guys to guys with hair….what does it matter?

— Tomato-gate

It’s the first time [the show’s] been hosted by a couple of tomatoes!

— Tomato-gate

This is the biggest bunch of BULLSHIT I have ever heard. I am gonna do everything in my power to support and promote female singer/songwriters in country music. Always.

— Tomato-gate

I think it got a lot of attention focused on something that frankly the audience probably knows nothing about, which is the fact that there are gatekeepers at radio and people that consult and decide what gets played,” McBride said. “I don’t think people were really aware of that. … I don’t know if it’s helped or not helped, but we do have some more females getting some airplay on the radio than there was a year ago.

— Tomato-gate

I wrote the song “Fight Like a Girl” about Tomatogate. (Radio consultant) Keith Hill said, men are the lettuce of the country salad, women are the tomatoes. You put a couple on top, but any more than (19) percent is too much. That’s literally almost a direct quote. Me and my two really good friends got pissed off and wrote a song, which I think is the best way to handle being pissed off.

— Tomato-gate

Labels felt it was too hard to break a woman at radio so they weren’t signing them, and radio says the labels aren’t giving them the artists. When I signed Miranda [Lambert to Sony in the early 2000s], it was never ‘Uh-oh, she’s a female.’ That only started in the last 10 years. I [recall] taking an artist around, and a record label exec said, ‘I’m not signing any females’ — not even ‘I’m not signing your female.’ I mean, that was spoken.

— Tomato-gate