A couple of members of a fresh generation of country music — Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson — came away as the top victors at Sunday night’s CMT Music Awards, broadcast live from Austin for the first time. But the biggest winners may have been CMT and CBS, putting the three-hour telecast on the map as a show packed with enough performance firepower that there is merit to it having transitioned from a cable platform to major broadcast network of last year.
However much the official winners may delight a core country crowd happy to see young radio and streaming favorites get rewarded, the big draw for the CBS audience was likely a series of collaborations between country stars and their pop or rock counterparts, as has been the custom for years on the rival CMA Awards. Most notable were the all-female collabs that had Carly Pearce dueting with Gwen Stefani on No Doubt’s “Just a Girl,” or Alanis Morissette trading lines with a slate of young female artists that included Lainey Wilson, Ingrid Andress, Morgan Wade and Madeline Edwards. The all-star teamings spread to those who presented, too, with Megan Thee Stallion providing the most enthusiastic introduction imaginable for “my new besty,” Shania Twain, picking up the Equal Play award.
Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini served as co-hosts for a third time. Brown and his wife, Katelyn Brown, got only one award for their hit duet, “Thank God,” but it was for the big one, video of the year, as voted by fans over a period of weeks that extended all the way into mid-telecast.
Two artists were multiple winners during or before the telecast. A freshman artist, Jelly Roll, came out on top with three wins, for male video of the year, breakthrough male of the year and digital-first video for his churchy country-rock power ballad, “Son of a Sinner.”
“Look at this! Three awards in one night!” crowed Jelly Roll, collecting the last of his trio. “I’m a little emotional. I started drinking. I didn’t think I was gonna win another one. … It may have looked like 30 yards, but it took me 30 years to walk from over there to right here.” The singer acknowledged that, with his heft and face full of tattoos, he does not fit any preconceived notions of what a country artist might look like. “I want to thank country radio for knowing who I was and letting me do it my way the whole way to the stage tonight,” he said. “We are shutting Sixth Street down tonight, baby! Meet me there.” Accepting another award earlier in the telecast, he said, “They let a loser win tonight, baby.”
Lainey Wilson, who is now collecting accolades behind her sophomore album, came in second with two trophies — one for female video of the year for her current No. 1 single in the format, “Heart Like a Truck,” and one for collaborative video of the year, for her featured appearance on a smash by an artist who shared in the award, Hardy, for the domestic abuse-themed “Wait in the Truck.”
Wilson is just a little more experienced at winning awards now than Jelly Roll was, since she recently fared well at the CMA Awards in November. Still, she said in accepting, “My heart is about to beat right out my chest.” She mentioned that the video for her winning “Heart Like a Truck” had all women in the key creative roles, not needing to mention that that filtered over to her band, too, as her CMTs performance featured a female lead guitar player.
Other winners included Cody Johnson, Zac Brown Band and Megan Moroney. See the full list of winners below.
Co-host Ballerini sent an implicit message in her performance of “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too),” a song about female friendship. That concept was extended to friends in drag, as she was joined by a quartet of queens from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” dressed in bright ’60s dresses practically out of “Hairspray.” The setup seemed to be commenting in its own playful way on the anti-drag law recently passed by the state of Tennessee (and temporarily halted by a federal judge on Friday, just hours before it was to go into effect).
Several of the collaborations put a spotlight on the 10th anniversary of CMT’s Next Women of Country initiative. Wynonna Judd was also joined by Ashley McBryde for a tribute to the Judds’ hit cover of Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
But it wasn’t all about the women. The show closer was a tribute to the late Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd, which had Slash, ZZ Top’s Billy GIbbons, Paul Rodgers, Warren Haynes, Chuck Leavell and country’s new traditionalist Cody Johnson being joined by Judd and LeAnn Rimes. Earlier, in a distinct nod to the host city of Austin, Gary Clark Jr. was given a solo spot to pay tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan. And the Black Crowes were joined by Darius Rucker, in a preview of the “CMT Crossroads” episode they filmed together in Austin earlier in the week.
Blake Shelton opened the telecast with one of the more traditionally staged performances of the night, joined by dancers doing line-dancing or two-stepping moves across the zig-zaggy stage. The much-liked, Texas-based newcomer Johnson had the most sedate and unenhanced performance of the evening, playing acoustic guitar on a stool one of the extended ramps in the arena, far from his band on the main stage. Several segments, including numbers by Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood and ex-Florida Georgia line member Tyler Hubbard, were pre-recorded at an outdoor concert in downtown Austin with the capital visible in the background. (“I feel like I’m gonna be doing some squats after that,” said Ballerini after Underwood’s performance.)
Following its CBS premiere, the telecast is available for streaming on-demand on Paramount+. On Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT, a version of the show with an extra 30-minutes added in will air on CMT.
See below for a gallery of red-carpet, on-stage and backstage looks that includes Twain with Megan; Stefani with her husband Blake Shelton; Carrie Underwood and many other presenters and performers.
The full list of CMT Music Award winners:
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Kane Brown & Katelyn Brown – “Thank God”
FEMALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Lainey Wilson – “Heart Like a Truck”
MALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Jelly Roll – “Son of a Sinner”
GROUP/DUO VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Zac Brown Band – “Out in the Middle”
BREAKTHROUGH FEMALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Megan Moroney – “Tennessee Orange”
BREAKTHROUGH MALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Jelly Roll – “Son of a Sinner”
COLLABORATIVE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Hardy feat. Lainey Wilson – “Wait in the Truck”
CMT PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Cody Johnson – “‘Til You Can’t” (from 2022 CMT Music Awards)
CMT DIGITAL-FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR (given out on red carpet)
Jelly Roll – “Son of a Sinner” (from CMT All Access)
