The 50th CMA Awards are fast approaching, and now we know who some of the performers will be on “country music’s biggest night.”
Redbook was the first to confirm that hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley will perform at this years CMAs, which will air on November 2nd on ABC. Underwood will open the show, but she’ll have to wait until the end to find out if she will be the 2016 Entertainer of the Year.
It is Underwood’s first time being nominated for what is undoubtably the biggest award of the night. The other nominees are first-time nominee Chris Stapleton (who has not yet been named as a performer, but we’re hopeful), Garth Brooks, and Luke Bryan. Keith Urban is also nominated for the award, and was named as one of the confirmed performers as well.
As for Paisley, he isn’t nominated for any awards, but he does have a new song to share. He’s been making headlines lately with his heartfelt tune, “Today,” which he released on October 7. Considering the success of the song already, we have a feeling it will be what Paisley chooses to perform during his CMA set.
Rising Star Maren Morris is also confirmed as a performer at the CMAs. Morris is nominated for a total of five awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year, New Artist of the Year, and Album of the Year for Hero.
Dierks Bentley featured Morris on his song, “I’ll Be the Moon,” but it is his collaboration with Elle King on “Different for Girls” that was nominated for Musical Event of the Year. Bentley is also nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year, Music Video of the Year, and Album of the Year for Black. With so many nominations, it was a no-brainer that Bentley was also named as one of the performers at this year’s CMAs.
Rounding out the list of confirmed performers so far is Eric Church, who is nominated for Single, Song, and Music Video of the Year for “Record Year,” Album of the Year for Mr. Misunderstood, and Male Vocalist of the Year.
More performers will be named over the course of the next three weeks leading up to the CMAs. We don’t know about you, but we’d love if they were able to pull of a “Forever Country” performance live. It would be quite a feat, because it would mean they CMAs would have to bring 30 artists together in the same place at the same time. But can you imagine how cool that would be?
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that will happen, and in the meantime enjoy the official music video for the “Forever Country” collaboration below.
Was your favorite artist named as one of the performers at this years’ awards? Who are hoping to see perform that wasn’t already named?