Beyonce surprises with bluegrass performance

Songstress belts out ‘Irreplaceable’ with country band Sugarland at AMAs

	Musician Jennifer Nettles, left, from the band Sugarland performs with singer Beyonce Knowles during the 2007 American Music Awards held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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updated 10:09 p.m. ET Nov. 18, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Beyonce went bluegrass in a surprise performance with country band Sugarland at the American Music Awards on Sunday night.

Even Ne-Yo was impressed.

“The bluegrass version,” the R&B star said backstage while watching a monitor of Beyonce’s performance of her hit “Irreplaceable” with Sugarland. “It ain’t bad.”

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Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles said the idea was hatched by the country duo’s publicist because they perform the song in their act.

“A good thing about a good song is it can be played in any genre,” she said. “I’m up for anything. I love it.”

Nettles said backstage that she was nervous going note-for-note with Beyonce.

“We were face to face, and there were a couple times when she was looking at me and I was blushing because I thought I was going to turn to stone in her beauty,” Nettles said. “She is so talented and so grounded.”

Nettles’ musical partner Kristian Bush was witness to it all.

“I was the luckiest man,” he said.

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