CMA Awards CEO Shares First Major Details About This Year’s Ceremony
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The CMA Awards will return on Wednesday, November 18, for its 60th year. That means this year’s show is expected to be a major celebration honoring the artists who have shaped the genre over the decades.
More specifically, the Country Music Association plans to spotlight the stars who helped define one of country music’s most memorable eras: the 1990s.
In a recent interview with Billboard, CMA CEO Sarah Trahern shared a few details about what viewers can expect from the upcoming broadcast. It will be her final CMA Awards before she officially steps down from her role in December, and it sounds like the perfect way for her to say goodbye.
“You can’t get hotter than the ’90s now in a lot of ways,” Trahern said. “When we did the 50th, we reached way back to the very beginning. We’ll reach back some to the early days of the CMAs, but really, the hot artists today, their heroes are the stars of the ’90s.”
Really, the idea behind this year’s ceremony is to acknowledge the artists who inspired today’s younger generation of country stars.
Trahern continued, “So the ability in this show to really focus on reaching back to there and what’s more relevant in that versus necessarily going back to Tammy Wynette and George Jones and Charley Pride and the people that I came into the business listening to. Those may be names that the current fans don’t know, but the current fans are going to know Tim McGraw, who’s going into the Country Music Hall of Fame. They’re going to know Brooks & Dunn, who are out touring today. They’re going to know Faith Hill, Martina McBride [and] all those heroes the artists today lean back to. That will be the thing that we can celebrate with the 60th a little bit more.”
It’ll be a special tribute to the ’90s for sure, and no detail is being overlooked. Trahern shared that the CMA is paying extra attention to this year’s stage design and adding new elements that the audience hasn’t seen before.
“We are redesigning some elements of our set to be able to really play into visually the history of our genre,” she said. “We’re not just about listening to tracks. The artists live country music, so the ability to utilize that set to both be a contemporary element and honor the history, I’m very excited.”
Why Lainey Wilson Is The “Perfect” Person To Host This Year’s CMA Awards
Lainey Wilson will be hosting this year’s CMA Awards, marking her third time leading the show and her second time solo.
According to Trahern, bringing Wilson back for 2026 was a no-brainer. Explaining why she thinks she’s the “perfect” choice, she told the outlet:
“Lainey is such a perfect person to host the show this year because she’s the reigning entertainer of the year and is continuing to be an international growth artist and is out there playing, but she also has such a deep, deep love of the history. I remember the year that she won new artist of the year [in 2022], and her talking about how it was a 10-year town and now just to watch her continue to explode on a global basis, what you see is what you get. The power of country music is being genuine and authentic, and that’s how Lainey walks into a room.”
Performers and presenters for the 60th CMA Awards have not been announced yet. But now that we know the night will celebrate ’90s country music, fans can probably expect some unforgettable moments and tributes.
The ceremony will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on November 18, at 8:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. CT. Viewers can tune in on ABC and Disney+, or stream on Hulu the following day.
You can see a full list of this year’s CMA Awards nominees here.
