Lord, what a mess this show was, primarily due to Luke B's hosting, and Lionel and Katy did not help. I still say Kelsea should've been picked for it--Luke B is so damn stale. Anyways, gonna group my thoughts into categories: performances, and awards.
Performances:Miranda opening was ICONIC. Loved that it was a medley of her Greatest Hits, and it makes me wonder if maybe "If I Was A Cowboy" is just a one-off single before she launches her next album era. Her losing EOTY (wouldn't have minded if it was CU of course
) after
this performance that proves why she's deserving pisses me off, but I'll get to that.
To go from Miranda to..."Beers on Me"....it was like the momentum dropped with a resounding thud. Terrible performance all around, by all involved.
The lukewarm reception this place has to Eric Church will never cease to baffle me. What's not to love about him?!?! This performance was GREAT! Easily among my favorites of the night.
Carly Pearce & Ashley McBryde sounded great. I hate that it was the song's instrumental supporting them, but at least they were still singing live. I LOVED Carly's makeup; both of them looked great!
Zac Brown Band...I have no comments, I took a bathroom break lol.
Gabby Barrett has some of the best pipes that has come out of this generation of country women. There are some severe problems with enunciation (
he's one-ah-ah good ones? Lolwut?!), but overall she's just wonderful vocally. REALLY love this arrangement.
Chris Young & Kane Brown were fun to watch! I have grown sick of "Famous Friends," but they had great energy that made for an enjoyable performance. Meanwhile, Jason Aldean & Carrie Underwood were painful to watch! I absolutely love "If I Didn't Love You," but my God, it just does NOT translate well in a live setting. Jason sounded rough as hell, and Carrie was clearly holding back in order to let him keep up with her. She sounded great obviously, and I loved her outfit. Overall however, it was an awful performance.
Blake Shelton...I hate this song, so I muted the TV lol.
Keith Urban was a great performance! I love "Wild Hearts," it's easily his best solo song in years and that performance was electric. Not nearly as electric as Eric Church, but electric.
Mickey Guyton deserves to be on that stage and I'm sick and tired and not at all a fan of the implications all over the last several pages of this thread that she doesn't. I will hear no arguments to the contrary. She has got MASSIVE talent and should've broken through when she first started her journey in this industry TEN years ago. It was nice to see her, Brittney Spencer, and Madeline Edwards all together up on that stage. And yes, Mickey SHOULD be giving "those statements" at award shows, and she should keep doing it. She knows what the hell she's talking about, and she's fought so hard to get onto that stage, so she has a right to use the platform she finally has to uplift her fellow Black female voices and let Black children know that they are not alone and that they are beautiful as they are. The thought shared in this thread that this performance should've been CUT...is the very reason this performance was needed. If you don't see that, start your soul-searching.
Old Dominion...another bathroom break, lol, especially following that INCREDIBLE trio of Mickey/Brittney/Madeline.
Chris Stapleton just has talent coming out of his ass, I swear. Every time I get sick of him constantly sweeping, he performs something like "Cold" and suddenly it makes sense to me why he is constantly sweeping. Easily among the best performances of the night, and his performance with Jennifer Hudson was among the best as well. She's phenomenal, and it's very easy to see why Aretha Franklin chose her to portray her in that biopic. I love how it wound up going to commercial because the song seemed never-ending
It was cool to see Ashley McBryde and Jimmie Allen freaking out in the audience, lol.
Luke Combs has his 14th consecutive (from the start of his career) #1 hit on his hands. It'll be at #1 by this time next month, and sweep the 2022 awards for Song and Single that songs like "Never Wanted to Be That Girl" deserve more. I'm sorry, but it just sounds the same as all of the slow songs he's ever put out. If this is a taste of the next album...I'm not enthused, I don't want it, and I continue to be underwhelmed by him overall recently. as much as I do love to see his songs climb the charts like it's the 90s, his bigger-even-than-Garth status has gotten to be too much for me to handle. I'm at the point where if I hear a song of his on the radio (that I don't want to hear unless it's on my own time), it's an instant station-changer.
They should've closed the show with Brothers Osborne. That was PERFECT. "Younger Me" is just so incredible and poignant, and makes me cry every single time, and the intro he gave had me in a river before the song even started! Best performance of the night, hands down.
Awards:As I already stated because it wasn't televised, I'm so thrilled for Kelsea who is so deserving of her two wins for the incredible "half of my hometown." For Musical Event, I would've also been happy to see Ryan/Maren or Elle/Miranda take it, but these were Kelsea's first CMA wins (finally) and she was just as deserving so I'll take it with glee.
Every song in the Song of the Year category was deserving, and "Starting Over" was the most undeniable, I feel. I probably would've liked to see "Hell of a View" win, but I'll take SO.
As for Single...that was Gabby's to win, love her or hate her. "The Good Ones" is STILL completely inescapable on the radio, and her vocal on the studio version is money, and so is that chorus. She was most deserving of this award and I feel like she should've taken it home.
Speaking of Gabby, she and Mickey were the ONLY acceptable answers for Best New Artist. That was a great acceptance speech by Jimmie Allen...but damnit.
LOL, Vocal Group is the same old, same old, literally every f**king year. I took a restroom break for an AWARD presentation because I already knew who would win
This category is just not exciting anymore. To switch it up, I'd love if Little Big Town could have even just ONE more big hit so that they can win this one again.
I can't describe to y'all the absolute elation I felt when I heard Brothers Osborne be called to the stage for Vocal Duo!!! Is this perhaps a historic win?!?! TJ's half of the acceptance speech was lovely, and when he said "it really does feel like love won tonight," I just about broke. It was AMAZING to see him kiss his boyfriend before heading on stage, and I'm so happy ABC aired it!!! It's such a little moment to everyone else, but it really is so huge for us all, especially on something like a country music awards show. I'm so excited to see how TJ might continue to cause a change in the industry in terms of LGBTQ+ representation, because it is still SORELY lacking (just TJ is not enough, especially because he's not a solo act...we still need a solo act!!!), in the future. I'm hopeful there are many young LGBTQ+ kids who have dreams of being on this stage and watched these awards last night who saw the BrOs win a CMA and thus saw that
they can do it too. It really renews my faith in this genre's future, even though it will take a LOT of hard work to get there.
Chris for MVOTY...unsurprised, it's well deserved, moving on.
OMFG AND THE CMA GOES TO CARLY PEARCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had the same reaction as Ashley when I heard Carly's name called for FVOTY!!! I'm spinning
29: Written In Stone all day to celebrate!!! Her acceptance speech was so wonderful, and I love the support that Ashley was by coming up there and helping her start her speech. You can tell they're great friends and it's really nice to see. FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR, Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't be more thrilled!!! Easily my favorite award moment of the night.
Starting Over as AOTY...I would've also liked to see
29 or
Skeletons, but I'll take it! It really is a great album, among the best country releases of 2020, and was equally deserving of this award. Will
29: Written In Stone be able to be considered for AOTY next year?
EOTY...MASSIVE yawn. Knew a man's name was coming, and I'm unsurprised, but I'm still bitter. It was Carrie or Miranda, for God's sakes. I don't place my anger at Luke C himself, but rather at the powers that be. It's BS that Carly's the only woman on the TV portion of the show to win an award, and that was by f**king default. Women have DOMINATED the past two years, and I'm sick and tired of it going unrecognized. I did like Luke's acceptance speech though. He at least acknowledged how deserving everyone else was, and was quite humble about it, which I always like to see. Fun fact: If you remember the fated night of 11/13/19...Garth was right.
Overall, like last year, there were some good highlights, but overall it was rather boring to sit through and felt like a chore to watch at times. Congratulations to all of the nominees, and all of the winners