The CMT Music Awards telecast has added some star power to this coming Sunday’s CBS telecast, with a couple of pairings that match famous female pop stars with women artists in the country world, plus a diversity-celebrating “Equal Play” honor for crossover queen Shania Twain.
On the collaborative front, Gwen Stefani will join recent No. 1 country hitmaker Carly Pearce for a duet of a yet-unannounced song.
And Alanis Morissette will be joined on her original signature number, “You Oughta Know,” by four of country’s most compelling young artists — Morgan Wade, Madeline Edwards and chart-toppers Lainey Wilson and Ingrid Andress (plus guitarist Jackie Venson) — as part of a salute to the 10th anniversary of CMT’s Next Women of Country initiative. All four of Morissette’s singing counterparts on this collab came up being featured as part of the annual Next Women lineups.
Twain will be receiving CMT’s Equal Play Award, given by the network to an “advocate for elevating diverse and underrepresented voices in country music.” Previous recipients included Black country pioneer Linda Martell and Jennifer Nettles.
The collaborative performance additions join a lineup that already includes such pairings as the Black Crowes with Darius Rucker (promoting a “CMT Crossroads” they’re doing together), Wynonna Judd with Ashley McBryde, and Kane Brown with his wife and duet partner Katelyn Brown. Other performers already set include cohost Kelsea Ballerini, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, Tyler Hubbard and Lainey Wilson (apart from her role in the Morissette numbrer).
In the nominations, Wilson leads with four, followed by Brown, Jelly Roll and Johnson with three.
The three-hour show airs from Austin Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and via streaming on the Paramount+ app. CMT itself has to wait its turn, now that the show is in its second year of premiering on CBS, but an expanded three-and-a-half hour version of the show will bow on CMT April 6 from 8-11:30 ET/PT.
Voting is closed for most of the categories on the show, with nominees selected by CMT and fans doing the rest in a series of online polls. The exception is video of the year, for which voting will continue into the first part of the show Sunday.
The telecast’s executive producers are Margaret Comeaux and Leslie Fram for CMT, John Hamlin for Switched On Entertainment) and Jason Owen for Sandbox Entertainment.
