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Reba McEntire, Darius Rucker Plan to Co-Host an ‘Upbeat and Light’ CMA Awards

The 2020 Country Music Awards will feature co-hosts Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker at the Music City Center in Nashville.

The awards this year will have a light, upbeat tone, co-host Reba McEntire told Fox News. The original show was postponed for four months due to a tornado and the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re trying to keep it upbeat and light. We as a country, we as a nation, we as a world, we need entertainment,” said McEntire, who is on her fifth time hosting the awards show. “I think people sitting at home in front of their TV screens or their computers, I think they want to see what we can deliver.”

But that’s not to say they will be ignoring COVID-19. Rucker told Fox that the show will also address the pandemic and the difficult year many people at home have gone through.

The main event, however, will be the music.

Show organizers told Parade that the awards will showcase outdoor performances in and around Nashville. 

This year’s nominees include Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, The Chicks, Dan + Shay, Luke Combs, Sam Hunt, Kelsea Ballerini and Thomas Rhett. Some artists outside the country world got awards nods, too: Halsey, Marshmello and Gwen Stefani are also up for awards this year.

For their part, McEntire and Rucker promised to hold a competition to see who can fit the most outfit changes into the awards show’s format.

“Darius and I talked about that,” McEntire told Fox. “He told me he’s gonna change clothes about six or seven times, so I am going to have to go eight at least.”