will-carrie-underwood-make-history-at-the-2023-cmt-awards-actually-she-already-has

Will Carrie Underwood Make History at the 2023 CMT Awards? Actually, She Already Has

The 2023 CMT Music Awards, which honors excellence in country music, has finally arrived; and Carrie Underwood has a chance to break her own record. 

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The show airs on CBS live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Country music lovers can also watch the show on Paramount+. Fans get to vote on every single category, making it the only such award show completely determined by popular vote.

Here’s how to watch, who’s up for which award, and some other good stuff ahead of this year’s CMT Music Awards on Sunday.

Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini will co-host the show for the third straight year.

“[It’s the] only award show I’ve hosted, and it’s just cool, getting to keep doing it and getting to keep getting more comfortable,” Brown told Entertainment Weekly in February. “It’s cool to be doing it with somebody I’m familiar with. I’m very shy. So if I was doing it with a stranger, I don’t know how it’d go.”

Lainey Wilson enters the evening as the artist to catch with a total of four nominations. She is up for video of the year and collaborative video of the year for her music video with HARDY, female video of the year for “Heart Like a Truck,” and performance of the year for her performance last year at the 2022 CMT Awards.

Carrie Underwood goes for CMT Awards show history Sunday night

Carrie Underwood, who holds the record for being the most nominated CMT Awards artist in the history of the show, is also up for video of the year. It’s an award she’s accustomed to winning: Underwood has won video of the year for the past four years in a row. In her career, she has 14 nominations in that category and 10 wins. She may also break her own record of 25 CMT Music Awards with a win Sunday evening.

Other video of the year nominees include Kane Brown with his wife Katelyn Brown, Blake Shelton, Cody Johnson, and the industry’s hottest artist, Morgan Wallen.

Many artists will take the stage and perform their hits over the course of the night’s festivities. One of the surprise performances includes seven-time Grammy Award-winning artist Alanis Morissette, who will take the stage with Wilson, Ingrid Andress, Madeline Edwards and Morgan Wade to sing “You Oughta Know.” Also making her CMT performance debut is Gwen Stefani, who will take the stage with Carli Pearce.

The CMTs will also honor Shania Twain as the third-ever recipient of the CMT Equal Play Award. The award honors performers who advocate for change within the industry.

“The music industry going back 20 years ago, 30 years ago, was primarily more dominated by men,” Twain told CNBC in an interview. “You know, male executives, most of the studio musicians were men. Most of the managers were men. It was just more male-dominated in every sense. So being taken seriously as a woman was a challenge.”