CARRIE UNDERWOOD won two trophies at last night’s “CMT Music Awards”. “Love Wins” won Female Video of the Year, and “Cry Pretty” took home the big award, Video of the Year. Nobody’s won more CMTs than Carrie’s 20.
And then there’s rising star ASHLEY MCBRYDE winning Breakthrough Video of the Year for “Girl Goin’ Nowhere”. You know her collection of awards will pile up through the years. Did you smile when she brought her drink up while accepting? Me too.
The show started with energy as THOMAS RHETT joined hosts LITTLE BIG TOWN and TROMBONE SHORTY for “Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time”. Then it went outside for KANE BROWN performing “Short Skirt Weather”. I did not feel cheated.
As far as Little Big Town hosting for the second year: I get it, they’re likeable, but they’re still a little stiff. In their defense, comedy is not easy, and they’re not comedians . . . but I did enjoy the “Game of Thrones” Starbucks joke. Maybe the cup can host next year.
It was good to see TOBY KEITH again. He sang “That’s Country, Bro”. I miss the guy. And have you noticed how confident KELSEA BALLERINI is these days? She performed “Miss Me More“, and owned it.
When you see SHERYL CROW join MAREN MORRIS, you know it’s going to be good. They did “Prove You Wrong”, which is the song they recorded with Stevie Nicks. It’ll be on Sheryl’s upcoming final album.
How’s this for a lineup: Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Deana Carter, Lauren Alaina, RaeLynn, and Carly Pearce all on stage singing “Delta Dawn“. It felt historic.
And on that note: ZAC BROWN’s acceptance speech after winning Group Video of the Year for “Someone I Used to Know” will go down in history for the wrong reason. Instead of simply thanking everyone, he read a rant that ended with . . .
Quote, “For you young artists, have courage to stand up against the machine, be yourself, work hard and one day you can stand up here and tell all the haters to [eff] off.” Come on, Zac. It’s a family show, you tool. (The Internet was conflicted.)
Fortunately, we also had CARRIE UNDERWOOD classing up the place with her performance of “Southbound“. Does she ever let you down? No. How hot is LUKE COMBS’ career? His performance of “Beer Never Broke My Heart” closed the show.
Here’s your complete list of last night’s winners . . .
• Video of the Year: “Cry Pretty”, Carrie Underwood
• Male Video of the Year: “Lose It”, Kane Brown
• Female Video of the Year: “Love Wins”, Carrie Underwood
• Group Video of the Year: “Someone I Used to Know”, Zac Brown Band
• Duo Video of the Year: “Speechless”, Dan + Shay
• CMT Performance of the Year: “Beautiful Crazy”, Luke Combs and Leon Bridges . . . from “CMT Crossroads”.
• Collaborative Video of the Year: “Coming Home”, Keith Urban featuring Julia Michaels
• Breakthrough Video of the Year: “Girl Goin’ Nowhere”, Ashley McBryde
