The 2024 CMA Awards are almost here. The star-studded ceremony takes place on Wednesday, November 20. Keep reading to find out all of the details about the annual show.
How to Watch:
The CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on November 20, at 8:00 PM ET on ABC. The show will also stream the next day on Hulu.
Who is Hosting:
Luke Bryan, Lainey Wilson and Peyton Manning will host the 2024 CMA Awards together. Although this is the first time the CMA Awards will be hosted by the three stars, Bryan and Manning have hosted together for the last two years, with Bryan helming the show solo in 2021.
“I went by myself the first year, and they just keep adding people,” Bryan quipped during the trio’s first CMA Awards rehearsal. “We love it. Peyton and I have had a great time, and then to bring Lainey and let Lainey be a part of it, it’s gonna be so fun … This is our first day together, so we’re starting to kind of feel the energy that we’re going to be able to bring to the stage the night of the CMA Awards.”
Wilson was the big winner at last year’s CMA Awards, winning five trophies, including the night’s highest honor, Entertainer of the Year. Because of her monumental wins at the 2023 CMA Awards, Manning said she is a natural fit to co-host this year’s ceremony.
“Obviously last year, Lainey spent as much time on the stage as Luke and I did as the hosts, so it’s only fitting that she comes back to the place where she belongs,” Manning joked. “It was really special to be there for her special night last year at the CMA Awards, and so when I heard the news, I was thrilled. I’m not sure I belong up here with these talented musicians, but I’m honored that they let me still hang around. It’s still the greatest night in country music, and being a huge country music fan, to be able to co-host this with Lainey and Luke, it’s obviously a big thrill for me.”
Although Wilson isn’t as seasoned of a host as Bryan or Manning, she does vow she will have a good time on the stage, even if it’s at her two co-hosts’ expense.
“I feel like these guys, they don’t take themselves too seriously, and that’s what I want,” Wilson says. “I want us to just get up there and have fun and mess with each other, and give each other a hard time. If I don’t give you a hard time, that means I don’t like you. If I’m not messing with you, there’s a problem, so I just want us to get up there and celebrate the biggest night of the year. I’m excited just to be invited and have a seat out in the audience, much less get to host the thing with these boys.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the CMA/Brian Bowen Smith
Who is Nominated:
Morgan Wallen leads the list of nominees with a total of seven nods, followed by Cody Johnson and Chris Stapleton, who have five nominations each, and Post Malone and Wilson with three nods each. See a complete list of nominees here.
In addition, George Strait will receive the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, given to an “iconic artist who has attained the highest degree of recognition in country music,” per a press release.
“There have been few other artists as authentically Texas and authentically country as George Strait, and country music fans all over the world have been better for it,” says Sarah Trahern, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “As a three-time CMA Entertainer of the Year and the most nominated artist of all time, he serves as an inspiration and icon to many of the great, new artists we know today. I am thrilled we are awarding him with this deserving honor.”
Photo Credit: Peggy Sirota
Who is Performing:
Both Bryan and Wilson will perform, along with plenty of other artists already slated to take the stage, including Luke Combs, Eric Church, Megan Moroney, Kacey Musgraves, Bailey Zimmerman, Johnson, Riley Green, Ella Langley, Kelsea Ballerini, Noah Kahan, Brooks & Dunn, Jelly Roll, Dierks Bentley, Post Malone, Shaboozey, Ashley McBryde, Stapleton, Thomas Rhett and Teddy Swims, plus hosts Luke Bryan and Lainey Wilson.
Combs will sing his latest No. 1 hit, “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma.” Moroney will sing her recent hit “Am I Okay?” Musgraves will perform “The Architect,” and Zimmerman will sing “New to Country.” Green and Langley will sing their hit, “You Look Like You Love Me,” Brooks & Dunn will sing their classic, “Believe,” with Jelly Roll. Ballerini and Kahan will sing “Cowboys Cry Too.”
Bryan will perform his recent No. 1 hit, “Love You, Miss You, Mean It,” while Wilson will perform her new single “4x4xU,” and Bentley will perform his Tom Petty cover, “American Girl” with Sierra Hull, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and Molly Tuttle.
McBryde will perform a “showstopping” song that is yet to be announced. Post Malone will perform both “Yours, a song about his daughter, along with a collaboration with Stapleton on “Sober.” Stapleton will also sing “What Am I Gonna Do.” Shaboozey will sing a medley of his hit single, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” plus his new single “Highway.” Rhett and Teddy Swims will sing a combination of their hits “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Woman” and “Lose Control.”
Neither Church nor Johnson have revealed what song they will sing. Several artists will also perform in tribute to Strait.
Who is Presenting:
Simone Biles, Jeff Bridges and The Oak Ridge Boys have been announced as presenters, along with Carly Pearce, Dustin Lynch, Don Johnson, Jordan Davis, Clint Black, Mark Collie, Little Big Town, Billy Bob Thornton, Katharine McPhee, Freddie Freeman, Jackson Laux, Taylor Frankie Paul, Caleb Pressley, Nate Smith, Mitchell Tenpenny and Daniel Sunjata.
Find more information on the 2024 CMA Awards at CMAawards.com.