Country superstar Carrie Underwood, who was not nominated for any Country Music Assn. Awards this year, still made a surprise appearance at the Nashville ceremony to perform with Cody Johnson.
The “Before He Cheats” hitmaker joined Johnson onstage to perform their romantic duet “I’m Gonna Love You” in front of a cheering audience inside Bridgestone Arena. COJO began the song and Underwood appeared just in time to sing the second verse. Then, about halfway through, Johnson took a moment to introduce her to viewers, saying “Yeah, that’s Carrie Underwood,” to audience cheers.
It was the first time in Underwood’s career that she was shut out of the CMA Awards nominations, and the “American Idol” alum was not listed among the performers ahead of Wednesday’s show. The singer, who hosted the show a dozen times from 2008 to 2019, was also absent from last year’s festivities.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s album “Leather” won the award for album of the year and the Texas singer took the stage during the awards ceremony to express his shock at losing to the night’s big winner, Chris Stapleton.
“Tennessee Whiskey” singer Stapleton, who opened the ABC telecast with a performance of “California Sober” with pop-country crossover star Post Malone, won the most prizes Wednesday night, taking home three awards: song of the year and single of the year for “White Horse” and male vocalist of the year.
The musician was also among the handful of country stars who presented “King of Country” George Strait with the 2024 CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.
Stapleton seemed poised to sweep the awards show but ultimately lost the top prize — entertainer of the year — to Morgan Wallen. The “Man Made a Bar” singer, who was quadruple-nominated for his feature on Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” had been up for seven awards on Wednesday but only won the one. However, he nabbed the CMA Awards’ marquee prize for the first time in his career. With 19 total CMA Awards, Stapleton tied with the duo Brooks & Dunn to become the most-winning CMA acts of all time.
Lainey Wilson, who co-hosted the awards show with Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning, was named female vocalist of the year and earned the award for music video of the year for “Wildflowers and Wild Horses.” Old Dominion won the award for vocal group of the year for a record seventh straight time, surpassing the six previous wins that belonged to Little Big Town. “Tennessee Orange” singer Megan Moroney was named new artist of the year.