Jun 092021
The 2021 CMT Awards are airing tonight on CMT and various other platforms, hosted by Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini. As we usually do, here is a play-by-play of what happened during the broadcast!
- The show kicked off with Lady A performing their new single “Like a Lady.” Carly Pearce then came out to join them for the 2nd verse!
- After the announcer listed the night’s performers and guests, she kicked it to Chris Stapleton who performed his song “Arkansas” on a farm in the nearby town of Manchester.
- The announcer then introduced Kane and Kelsea who took the stage for the first time as hosts.
- They introduced Taylor Lewan and Trace Adkins who were out to present the first award of the night. Taylor was actually pretty good with the bit they did!
- Group Duo of the Year Award
- “All Night” – Brothers Osborne
- “Like a Lady” – Lady A
- “Wine Beer Whiskey” – Little Big Town (WINNER)
- “Never Be Sorry” – Old Dominion
- “Just the Way” – Parmalee w/ Blanco Brown
- “We Were Rich” – Runaway June
- Hailey Whitters performed her single “Fillin’ My Cup” as they went to commercial
- Kane and Kelsea announced the Final Four finalists for Video of the Year:
- “Hallelujah” by Carrie Underwood w/ John Legend
- “Worldwide Beautiful” by Kane Brown
- “One Too Many” by Keith Urban w/ P!nk
- “Hole in the Bottle” by Kelsea Ballerini
- Michael Strahan came out to introduce Luke Combs who was performing “Cold As You” in downtown Nashville at Assembly Hall
- The announcer introduced Mickey Guyton who came out to introduce a clip about Linda Martell, the first black woman to ever land a top 2o single and to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. It was then announced that Linda was presented with the Equal Play Award remotely.
- The announcer introduced Busy Phillips who remotely introduced Jack Ingram, Jon Randall, and Miranda Lambert who were performed “Tequila Does” while sitting around a campfire.
- The cast of a new CMT show, Campfire Sessions, came out to plug their new show and to present the next award
- Performance of the Year
- “1, 2 Many” – Luke Combs w/ Brooks & Dunn
- “I Should Probably Go To Bed” – Dan + Shay
- “This Is Us” – Jimmie Allen w/ Noah Cyrus
- “The Other Girl” – Kelsea Ballerini w/ Halsey (WINNER)
- “Wine, Beer, Whiskey” – Little Big Town
- “Twinkle Twinkle” – Nathaniel Rateliff & Margo Price
- Dylan Scott performed a snippet of his single “Nobody” as the show went to a commercial break
- Dierks Bentley and Brothers Osborne performed “Lighten Up” from the Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester
- Carly Pearce came out to introduce the next performer, Thomas Rhett who performed “Country Again”
- Kane Brown introduced Kelsea Ballerini and Paul Klein who performed “I Quit Drinking”
- Tenille Arts performed her hit single “Somebody Like That” as the show went to commercial
- Iliza Shlesinger came out to give a quick comedy bit before presenting the award for:
- Collaborative Video of the Year
- “Hallelujah” by Carrie Underwood & John Legend
- “One Too Many” by Keith Urban w/ P!nk
- “Famous Friends” by Chris Young & Kane Brown (WINNER)
- “Chasing After You” by Ryan Hurd w/ Maren Morris
- “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna go Home)” by Elle King & Miranda Lambert
- “Undivided” by Tim McGraw & Tyler Hubbard
- Kelsea introduced Ingrid Andress who performed her current single “Lady Like” from a rooftop in Nashville. Ingrid then introduced JP Saxe who joined her for a duet on his song “Like That”
- Kelsea introduced Breland and Mickey Guyton who performed Breland‘s single “Cross Country” – hear it on our 2021’s Best New Country Music Spotify Playlist!
- Gladys Knight then joined them on stage to perform “Friendship Train”
- Brett Young was then introduce by the announcer to present the award for Breakthrough Video of the Year
- Breakthrough Video of the Year
- “Nobody” by Dylan Scott (WINNER)
- “Filling My Cup” by Hailey Whitters
- “Give Heaven Some Hell” by Hardy
- “Things a Man Oughta Know” by Lainey Wilson
- “Black Like Me” by Mickey Guyton
- “Good Time” by Niko Moon
- Kane Brown introduced Blanco Brown who performed a snippet of his new single “Country More Than Me”
- Cody Allan, Katie Cook and Ashley ShahAhmadi introduced Lauren Alaina and Jon Pardi, who performed “Getting Over Him” from a park in Nashville
- Little Big Town announced the Male Video of the Year
- Male Video of the Year
- “Starting Over” by Chris Stapleton
- “Beers and Sunshine” by Darius Rucker
- “Worship You” by Kane Brown (WINNER)
- “Down to One” by Luke Bryan
- “Lovin’ On You” by Luke Combs
- “What’s Your Country Song” by Thomas Rhett
- The show went to commercial as Lainey Wilson performed her single “Things a Man Ougtha Know”
- Kane and Kelsea introduced Chris Stapleton and H.E.R. who performed a duet on her song “Hold On”
- Kane and Kelsea introduced Carrie Underwood and Needtobreathe who performed “I Wanna Remember” at the Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester
- Niko Moon took the show to commercial with a performance of “Good Time”
- Gladys Knight came out to present the next award
- Female Video of the Year
- “Next Girl” by Carly Pearce
- “The Good Ones” by Gabby Barrett (WINNER)
- “Hole in the Bottle” by Kelsea Ballerini
- “To Hell and Back” by Maren Morris
- “Heaven Down Here” by Mickey Guyton
- “Settling Down” by Miranda Lambert
- Dylan Scott was next out to plug a Lipton spot, then introduced Luke Bryan performing at Assembly Hall in downtown Nashville who performed his new single “Down to One”
- Anthony Mackie was introduced to present the award for Music Video of the Year
- Music Video of the Year
- “Hallelujah” by Carrie Underwood w/ John Legend (WINNER)
- “Worldwide Beautiful” by Kane Brown
- “One Too Many” by Keith Urban w/ P!nk
- “Hole in the Bottle” by Kelsea Ballerini
- The show ends with Kelsea introducing Chris Young and Kane Brown to perform “Famous Friends”