ACM Awards: Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde Team Up For ‘Never Wanted To Be That Girl’
on Mar 07, 2022 • Updated Aug 17, 2023
The performances at the 2022 ACM Awards show have been nothing short of amazing. One performance worth noting was the Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde collaboration, “Never Wanted To Be That Girl.”
The song, co-written by Pearce, McBryde and Shane McAnally, appears on Carly’s latest album, 29: Written in Stone. “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” draws parallels to the 1993 Reba McEntire, Linda Davis hit “Does He Love You,” but Carly Pearce told Taste of Country prior to the song’s release that they worked hard not to replicate the iconic country duet that relays a conversation between a wife and her husband’s mistress.
“That is a timeless piece of art that can never be topped or even matched,” she says. “And for me, and for Ashley, we wanted to do a different perspective.”
“Never Wanted To Be That Girl” earned the pair ACM nominations for Video of the Year and Music Event of the Year. The ladies excitedly announced on the red carpet prior to the show that they won the Music Event of the Year award. Both women are also up for the coveted Female Artist of the Year trophy.
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Fans have seen Carly and Ashley perform “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” live before, but the intensity and heartbreak they brought to Monday night’s ACM Awards show performance made it feel as if we were hearing the song for the first time.
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Watch a clip of Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde’s live ACM Awards performance of “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” in the video below.
