Eric Church set things on fire at the 2021 CMA Awards.
The 55th Annual Country Music Association Awards were held on Wednesday, November 10. The Chief performed his hit “Heart on Fire” and he brought the song to life. He was surrounded by fire on the stage along with pyro flashing behind him. What an epic way to kick off an even more epic song.
“A turned up radio, but the static was heavy/ Couldn’t make out any words but ‘take me to the levee’/ That look on your face was full of wild desire/ Soakin’ my soul in gas and settin’ my heart on fire,” Church sang.
Church wrote the song when he was in North Carolina on a writing retreat for 28 days. He almost finished the song by himself but a group of fellow writers joined him to finish it.
“We were heading down the path of what this was going to be,” he said in a press release. “I thought we needed to kind of break the ice and get started on something, you know, we were doing something that was tough to do – writing the song the same day we were record it. This was the song that was kind of the icebreaker for the whole project, and I credit this song a lot for getting us to where we ended up getting to with the project.”
Eric Church’s Big Night
Eric Church had numerous nominations at this year’s ceremony. He was nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year for Heart.
Additionally, he was up for Single of the Year and Song of the Year for “Hell of a View”. Finally, Church was nominated for the coveted Entertainer of the Year Award. He is up against Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Luke Combs, and Chris Stapleton.
His evening doesn’t end there. Aside from his performance and nomination, Thomas Rhett is going to name-drop him during his performance.
Thomas Rhett performed his hit single and album title track “Country Again”. In the song he sings, “But last night we cracked some cold beers / And cranked Eric Church to ten / Thought, “Man, it feels good to be country again.”
“We’re gonna try to replicate what we did live this summer on the CMA stage which will be super fun,” Rhett said. “I can’t wait to point right at Eric Church when I drop his line in the song. Hopefully, he gives me a thumbs up. I’m just really excited about it.
The 2021 CMA Awards took place on Wednesday, November 10 at Nashville, Tennesse’s Bridgestone Arena. Luke Bryan hosted the evening which featured twenty performances. Stay tuned to Outsider for more CMA Awards content!