LIST: 11 Stars Who Surprisingly Didn’t Attend The Dolly Parton Tribute Special
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On Wednesday, October 21, the CMA produced a Dolly Parton tribute concert that aired live on ABC and Disney+. If you missed the show when it aired, you can now stream it on Hulu and Disney+.
The special featured a stacked lineup, with artists such as Carrie Underwood, Lainey Wilson, Ella Langley, Vince Gill, Zac Brown, and Reba McEntire tipping their hats to Dolly. The show ended with all of the artists uniting onstage to sing the final lines of “I Will Always Love You.”
RELATED: 5 ICONIC SONGS THAT WEREN’T INCLUDED IN THE DOLLY PARTON TRIBUTE SPECIAL
The CMA’s Dolly Parton tribute special was only two hours long, so they were running on a time crunch. This surely affected the size of the lineup.
Some fans couldn’t help but think of a few stars who were noticeably “missing” from the show. These artists are ones that either had strong ties to Dolly, are well-known for covering her songs, or are people we’re used to seeing at events like this, making their absence more noticeable.
Look below for a list of 11 stars who surprisingly didn’t attend the Dolly Parton tribute show.
Just to clarify before we start: we don’t know whether any of these stars were asked to perform during the special. Therefore, anyone mentioned is not someone who “refused” to participate, to the best of our knowledge.
None of the artists listed were ever part of the announced lineup. So it’s not as though they were expected to be there and didn’t (or couldn’t) show up. They’re simply singers fans would have loved to see, and wondered why they weren’t there…
Fans Missed Seeing These 11 Artists During The Dolly Parton Tribute Concert On October 21
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus‘ absence from the Dolly Parton tribute show was frequently mentioned in the comments of posts about the program. That’s because Dolly was Miley’s godmother.
Miley is also known for delivering what many feel is one of the best covers of Dolly’s “Jolene.” She had just delivered a tearful performance of the song during a concert at the Hollywood Bowl on October 16.
That concert was Miley’s first in four years. Since she’s just now easing back into live performances, and just sang on the West coast, that could explain why she didn’t participate in the Dolly tribute. Plus, we’re sure it would be incredibly difficult for her to power through the show, considering how close she was to Dolly.
Bill Ray Cyrus
Miley’s father, “Achy Breaky Heart” singer Billy Ray Cyrus, was also noticeably absent from the Dolly Parton tribute show. He and Dolly were close friends, which is why she was named Miley’s godmother.
The duo sang together several times over the years and released a duet, “Romeo,” in 1993. The song also featured Pam Tillis, Tanya Tucker, Kathy Mattea, and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Since he and Dolly were practically family, fans were expecting to see Billy Ray at the show, and were surprised when he wasn’t there.
Tanya Tucker
Speaking of Tanya Tucker, she was another one of Dolly’s friends and former collaborators who didn’t attend the tribute show.
Tanya was never part of the announced lineup. But, it seems valid to assume she could have attended the show as a special guest.
We don’t know if that was Tanya’s intention. However, if it were, we have a pretty good idea why she would have canceled those plans.
Tanya attended the Medallion Ceremony at the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday, October 18. During her speech celebrating new inductee Paul Overstreet, she shared that she had just sustained some painful injuries after falling down a flight of stairs a few days prior.
“I got internal bleeding and my lungs may be collapsed, but I’m here,” Tanya said, as quoted by The Tennessean.
With that in mind, if Tanya had planned to attend the Dolly tribute, we don’t blame her for staying home!
Kacey Musgraves
Kacey Musgraves is an artist who’s known for her Dolly Parton tributes. She’s honored Dolly several times throughout her career, most recently at the MTV VMAs on September 27, where she sang “I Will Always Love You.”
Kacey also tends to be a fixture at events like this, which is why people took notice of her abscence.
Kelly Clarkson
Although Kelly Clarkson is not a “country” artist by definition, she’s an honorary member of the community. She’s lent her powerful voice to many country classics throughout her career, including some of Dolly’s songs.
When Kelly sang “I Will Always Love You” at the 2022 ACM Awards, Dolly praised her performance, saying that Whitney Houston would have been proud to witness it.
Needless to say, fans who’ve enjoyed Kelly’s covers of Dolly’s songs were bummed she didn’t sing during the CMA’s tribute special.
Emily Ann Roberts
Emily Ann Roberts is a rising star in the country music community who’s actually been around for years. She came in second place on Season 9 of The Voice, and was a member of Blake Shelton‘s team.
Like Dolly, Emily Ann is from East Tennessee. Also like Dolly, she has the perfect voice for classic country and bluegrass tunes.
Emily has covered Dolly countless times before, so many people think she would have been the perfect fit for the tribute special. But sadly, she wasn’t part of the lineup!
Hannah Harper
Similar to Emily Ann, country singer Hannah Harper kick-started her career on a TV show. Hannah is the reigning American Idol winner, known for her emotional song about motherhood, “String Cheese.”
Hannah also has a voice that’s well-suited for traditional country and bluegrass music. She’s proven herself by singing Dolly songs before, and actually just delivered a set of shows at Dollywood a few weeks ago.
Many viewers felt Hannah would have fit right in with the other artists at the Dolly Parton tribute special. Plus, since the show was on ABC, and American Idol is an ABC production, it seemed like a sensible pairing!
Hannah released a cover of “9 to 5” two days after the tribute special. The official video for her performance was filmed at Dollywood.
Alison Krauss
There were several moments during the Dolly Parton tribute special that nodded to her bluegrass and folk roots. Because of that, Alison Krauss would have been a great person to loop into the show.
If Alison had considered joining the program at any point, she would have had to drop out. On September 10, she and Union Station had to cancel the remainder of their tour dates because Alison had been placed on doctor-ordered vocal rest.
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris performed with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt in the famous “Trio.” Considering her close connection to Dolly, it would have been lovely to see Emmylou at the tribute show on Wednesday night, but she didn’t attend.
Fans were never expecting an appearance from Linda, since she retired from performing in 2011 and has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. It has been several years since she’s made a public appearance.
Chris Stapleton
Chris Stapleton is frequently featured on the lineup for tribute performances and other large events. But he was noticeably missing from the group that sang during the Dolly Parton tribute.
His absence felt even more pronounced because he and Dolly recorded a song together a few years ago. They united to cover Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” for her Rockstar album in 2023.
Sugarland
Out of everyone mentioned in this list, Sugarland was the only one who directly addressed their absence from the Dolly tribute concert. The duo said, “@cma, We missed your Dolly tribute as we’re out on tour, so we wanted to celebrate with you in our own way!“
Dolly meant a lot to Sugarland member Jennifer Nettles in particular. She played Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee Parton, in the two Coat of Many Colors TV movies.
They celebrated by singing Dolly’s “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind,” which they called one of their “favorite” songs of hers. You can watch their performance in the video above.
Who did you miss seeing during the Dolly Parton tribute show on Wednesday night?
