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From an elegant tribute to George Strait to a string of bad jokes about Shaboozey, the high and low points of country music's big night
If you told us that last night’s 58th CMA Awards were actually held three decades ago, we’d have believed you. The Nashville awards gala was loaded with traditional country sounds, a lot of outdated jokes, and even a pair of winners whose heyday was in the mid-Nineties. Some of the performances put us to sleep, while others reinforced what country music does best: tell stories, sometimes humorously, with charisma and charm. These are the best, worst, and most WTF moments of the CMAs.
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Best: Ella Langley and Riley Green Resurrect the Classic Country Duet
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
At first, it looked like a skit — Ella Langley rising up from her seat in the arena to sashay through the crowd of celebs while singing the first verse of “You Look Like You Love Me,” her hit duet with Riley Green. As she made her way to the stage, cameras caught more commotion in the audience. This time, it was Green, popping up to answer Langley’s come-hither lines. “Boy, let me tell you/she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen in a pair of boots,” he smirk-sang, matching his partner’s charisma. By the time they united in front of a bar onstage, they were on fire, making the greatest case yet that the CMAs need to devote more time to fresh faces, especially when they have a song as good as this one. Performance of the night? Darn close. —J.H.
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Worst: Shaboozey Is Treated Like a Punchline
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
On Wednesday night, the CMAs had, in the building, something they almost never do: The singer of 2024’s biggest hit in the United States, all genre. That honorific goes to Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is currently enjoying a record-smashing run. Surely tens of thousands of viewers might tune in just to hear his mega blockbuster. Surely the CMAs would act accordingly, treating “A Bar Song” as the ace up the sleeve that it is. Instead, the non-“Bar Song” part of his performance, the understated “Highway,” was limited to little more than a verse and chorus, and his full performance came incredibly early in the night — by which point co-host Luke Bryan had already made two jokes about his name. (A third Shaboozey name
jokemicroaggression came later, during producer Trent Willmon’s acceptance speech for Cody Johnson’s Album of the Year win). Oh, and it goes without saying: Shaboozey lost both of his awards. —J.B. -
Best: Lainey Wilson Is a Reba-Level Host
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
The CMA Awards may have just found their legacy host, and, no, it’s not Luke Bryan and the quarterback. Co-hosting for the first time, Lainey Wilson slipped into the role of emcee effortlessly, exuding charm and grace even as she navigated a tired monologue and endured a bit in which she was lassoed off the stage. The fact that Wilson can also command a TV broadcast as a performer (her “4x4xU” was an understated highlight of the night) puts her in same class as Reba, arguably any country awards show’s greatest host. Let’s hope the CMA brings Wilson back next year — but leave the boys at home. —J.H.
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WTF: Morgan Wallen, Other A-Listers, Are MIA
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
This year, country music’s crossover pop appeal and cultural prominence has never been higher: Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter, Zach Bryan sold out football stadiums, Tyler Childers proved that Appalachian fiddle throwbacks can be TikTok hits, and Morgan Wallen continues to be the most popular country megastar of the streaming era. None of those artists were in the building last night, nor was there nary a mention of them over the course of three hours (other than Jeff Bridges announcing the winner of Entertainer of the Year: “Morgan Whale-in!”). Instead, the CMAs were, once again, a litmus test referendum on artists who play by whatever set of rules, practices, and ass-kissing rituals the industry deems necessary in order to receive its accolades. The “country music family,” is what Music Row calls it. Out of all the non-country artists who’ve found Nashville success over the past year, only Post Malone seems to have checked the boxes — and was rewarded with opening the show. —J.B.
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Best: Kacey Musgraves Puts on a Masterclass
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
During a year when the CMAs leaned further away from drum loops to embrace more traditional, ballad-forward performances — that were often snoozy in the end — one singer showed everyone else how to hold attention with just a guitar and a voice. That’d be Kacey Musgraves, who performed “The Architect,” the most country song from her recent, decidedly non-country LP Deeper Well. In arguably her most stripped back recording since 2013’s “It Is What It Is,” Musgraves performed sitting down, alone, on acoustic guitar. She pondered mortality and existence, asking a question with even more relevance than usual: “Do we have any say in this mess?” —J.B.
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WTF: What’s With All the Reruns?
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
“How can you miss me when I never left?” became an unintentional running joke of the night. Unlike the Grammy Awards, which allot one performance per major nominee, the CMAs decided that viewers wouldn’t be satisfied with merely one song by the leading contenders. In what amounted to overkill, Chris Stapleton was awarded three slots (one on his own, one with Post Malone, another with honoree George Strait), while Jelly Roll and Post Malone were given two each (one for their own song and another with a duet partner). Lainey Wilson got two performances too, but as co-host, that’s more understandable. Still, those slots were just crying out for hot new artists — like honky-tonk traditionalist (and New Artist of the Year nominee) Zach Top or even booming country-rock band (and first-time nominees) the Red Clay Strays. Instead, we got more of what we’d already seen before. —D.B.
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Best: Bailey Zimmerman Stages a Frat Party Fever Dream
Image Credit: Frank Micelotta/Disney/Getty Images
As a show jam-packed with midtempo, traditional country performances entered its final hour, we found ourselves in need of a musical Red Bull. Fortunately, Bailey Zimmerman, the gas pipeline worker turned Gen Z country star, was there to pull out all the stops. His performance of “New to Country” began with the Illinois native being lowered from the rafters onto a stage that looked like something out of a bro fever dream. There was a beer-pong table, dudes in flannels, and a band dressed all in white that may have included at least one set of twins. For the confetti-showered climax, pro wrestler the Big Show appeared, wearing a cape, to hoist Zimmerman onto his shoulders. Who knew we missed party songs so much? — J.H.
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Worst: Post Malone Needs a Lozenge
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
Post Malone is welcome to go as country as he wants; for now, at least, it’s a free country. On his show-opening duet with Chris Stapleton on “California Sober,” Malone acquitted himself well. But his performance of “Yours,” his song dedicated to his daughter from his current F-1 Trillion album, may have compelled even some of his most devoted family members to jam their fingers into their ears. Raspy-voiced and sometimes off key, Malone turned what was a poignant song on record into a far-from-easy-listening experience, especially when he appeared on the verge of yelling out the lyric. We’ll give Posty this: For better or worse, he sang live. — D.B.
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WTF: Brooks & Dunn, Who Haven’t Put Out New Material Since 2007, Win Duo of the Year
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
It’s the CMA’s most cursed category, as evidenced by the fact that the same exact five acts were nominated the last two years (sub out LoCash for the War and Treaty in 2022, and it’d be three years). But Maddie & Tae, the War and Treaty, Dan + Shay, and Brothers Osborne are all compelling, forward-thinking acts that push the genre in new textural and sonic directions. And although it’s been nearly a decade since this category has been home to the outright biggest hitmakers in country music — Florida Georgia Line in the mid 2010s; Sugarland in the late 2000s — all of the aforementioned acts are either connecting with contemporary audiences, releasing compelling new material or scoring charting singles. What a good opportunity to award an act grinding it out, like Maddie & Tae or War and Treaty. Instead, Brooks & Dunn, whose last record of new material came out when George W. Bush was president, won a surprise victory. They’re legends, to be sure, but it’s time to pass the torch. —J.B.
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Best: Legends Get the Tributes They Deserve
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety
The lifetime achievement medley can often drag like nothing else at an awards show with assorted stars singing karaoke versions of some legend’s biggest hits. But not at this year’s CMAs. A medley of George Strait songs — the recipient of the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award — was sharp and succinct, and even non-obvious: Strait’s 2008 “Troubadour” isn’t even close to being one of his biggest songs, but it’s hard to think of a more fitting homage, delivered movingly by Miranda Lambert and Parker McCollum. The one-song tribute to Kris Kristofferson, who died in September, was even more powerful, with Ashley McBryde offering a sparse rendition of “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” Not only did McBryde nail the song, but as an artist who has written lyrics about fleeting moments of passion and intimacy (“One Night Standards,” “Single at the Same Time”) hearing her sing Kristofferson illustrated just how much the late legend has influenced the next generation. —J.B.
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