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A list of winners at the 2021 CMT Music Awards, held Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee. — Video of the year: Carrie Underwood and John Legend, “Hallelujah” — Female video of … Click to Continue »
Carrie Underwood and Needtobreathe took the 2021 CMT Music Awards to new heights with their uplifting anthem “I Wanna Remember” on Wednesday (June 9).
The artists performed on a giant circular outdoor stage in an empty field at Bonnaroo Farm in Tennessee. As Underwood’s powerful voice soared, the white panels of fabric billowed around the stage, lending an air of breezy lightness to the performance. The setting was a perfect reflection of one of the verses, with Underwood and Bear Rinehart singing, “The night is clear/ All of the stars out in the atmosphere/ Wishing that they were you and me right here/ They’re showing off for us/ I don’t wanna forget it.”
The country rock band released the song in May, with Underwood also providing a vocal assist on the single. “‘I Wanna Remember’ is a nostalgic track and takes you back to the moments you never want to forget,” the band explained when the song dropped. “We felt like [Underwood’s] small-town roots and humble beginnings were the perfect addition to this song.”
Needtobreathe was not nominated for any awards this year, but Underwood received nods in the collaborative video and video of the year, both for “Hallelujah” with John Legend.
Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini co-hosted the festivities which were broadcast live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Emerging Aussie rapper, singer and DJ RONIN is the latest signing to Artist Partner Group (APG).
RONIN, the Sydney-born, Brisbane-based youngster, is enjoying a global breakout with his 2020 single “All Girls Are The Same.”
The tune blew up when it featured in a Fortnite video montage shared by gamer Flea. It’s since been viewed more than 6 million times, has notched more than 35 million spins on YouTube, 82 million plays on Spotify and has appeared on Spotify Viral 50 playlists around the globe, including the United States, Australia, Russia, and India, where it reached No. 1.
Total streams across all platforms have tallied well-over 150 million.
RONIN’s partnership with APG comes at a tipping point for Australian hip-hop. The likes of The Kid LAROI and Masked Wolf have burst into the top tier of Billboard’s charts, while Sydney-based hip-hop specialist Biordi Music recently struck a pact with Virgin Music and its network of fully staffed affiliates around the world.
“I signed Ronin and ‘All Girls Are The Same’ because to me that song melodically and sonically feels like a timeless record,” Andre Herd, head of A&R at Los Angeles-based APG, tells Billboard.
“I knew that it was going to have a long life and would resonate with a lot of people, which it clearly is. Ronin’s defining characteristics are his vision and his ambition – he wants to take over the world and really bring Aus culture to the world, and it’s hard to imagine that he won’t.”
RONIN’s hit single has been spun on Apple Music’s Beats1 Chart Show with Brooke Reece, KCRW’s Jason Kramer Show, and on Dash Radio, and it’s enjoyed a life of its own with the TikTok community, where it has appeared in more than 180,000 fan videos.
The official music video for “All Girls Are The Same” is coming soon and a RONIN EP will follow shortly after.
Founded in 2012 by industry executive Mike Caren, APG has introduced the likes of Ava Max, Charlie Puth, Don Toliver, Kehlani, Kevin Gates, Lil Skies, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, and many more.
Kane Brown was the only multiple winner at the 2021 CMT Music Awards, which were held Wednesday (June 9) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. He took two awards: male video of the year for “Worship You” and collaborative video of the year for “Famous Friends,” a collab with Chris Young.
These are Brown’s second wins in both categories. He shared the collaborative video award three years ago with Lauren Alaina for “What Ifs” and won the male video award two years ago for “Lose It.”
Brown co-hosted the show for the second year in a row, this time with Kelsea Ballerini. Ballerini also went home a winner. She and Halsey won CMT performance of the year for “The Other Girl,” which they performed on last year’s CMT Music Awards.
Here are some of the records set by this year’s CMT Music Awards winners.
Carrie Underwoodwon video of the year for the ninth time for “Hallelujah,” on which she teamed with John Legend. Underwood has more wins in this category than any other artist. (Taylor Swift and Keith Urban are tied for second place with three each.) This is the first time a collab video has won for video of the year. Legend is the first Black artist, and in fact the first non-country artist, to win in this category. (Oddly, the Underwood/Legend video didn’t win for collaborative video of the year. It was nominated, but lost to the Young/Brown video.)
Gabby Barrett won her first female video of the year award for “The Good Ones,” a song from her first studio album, Goldmine. Barrett won breakthrough video of the year last year for “I Hope.” She’s the first artist to climb from breakthrough video of the year to female video of the year since Swift, who won the breakthrough award in 2007 for “Tim McGraw” and the female video award the following year for “Our Song.”
Little Big Town won duo/group of the year for “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” following three wins for group video of the year (for “Girl Crush,” “Better Man” and “When Someone Stops Loving You”). Just two groups have won more awards in this category: Rascal Flatts (seven) and Lady A (five, back when they were known as Lady Antebellum). “Wine, Beer, Whiskey” is from LBT’s ninth studio album, Nightfall.
Dylan Scott’s “Nobody” took breakthrough video of the year. Scott is the first male artist to win in this category since Chris Stapleton took it five years ago for “Fire Away.” The award went in the last four years to a succession of female artists: Alaina, Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde and Barrett. This breakthrough is a long time coming for Scott, who released his only full-length album to date nearly five years ago. The music video for “Nobody” includes Scott’s wife Blair Robinson and their two kids, Beckett Scott and Finley Gray.
As noted above, Ballerini and Halsey won CMT performance of the year for “The Other Girl.” The collab was the second single from Ballerini’s third studio album, Kelsea, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. This category honors the best performance on a CMT program. Previous winners have been from CMT Crossroads and CMT Artists of the Year, among other CMT shows.
Linda Martell, the first Black female singer to play the Grand Ole Opry, was the second winner of the CMT Equal Play Award, following Jennifer Nettles last year. In 1969, Martell had two top 40 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart (as it was called then) – a cover version of The Winstons’ “Color Him Father” (which was a top 10 hit on both the Hot 100 and Best Selling Rhythm & Blues Singles) and an early version of “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” which went on to become a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts in 1975 for Freddy Fender.
The lyrics may be bleak, but Gladys Knight and Mickey Guyton delivered a rousing performance of “Friendship Train” at the 2021 CMT Music Awards on Wednesday (June 9).
The set came after Guyton and Breland wrapped up their collab, “Cross Country.” Guyton then declared excitedly, “The legendary Gladys Knight, ya’ll!” as the soul singer came out on stage clapping before taking the “Black Like Me” singer’s hand to kick off the song about social issues.
As they gave a lively performance of the song, which Gladys Knight and the Pips took to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1969, the live audience got up on their feet to dance along. Toward the end of the song, Breland came back on stage to help wrap up the set, which earned a standing ovation from those in the audience.
This is the second time in a week that Knight has performed. She took the stage at the Kennedy Center Honors, which aired June 6, to perform in honor of Garth Brooks, taking on his 1992 song “We Shall Be Free.” Brooks was one of the honorees of the evening, alongside Dick Van Dyck, Joan Baez, Debbie Allen and Midori.
Guyton was nominated for two awards this year, breakthrough video for “Black Like Me” and female video of the year for “Heaven Down Here.”
Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini co-hosted the awards, which were broadcast live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
H.E.R. and Chris Stapleton combined for a showstopping performance at Wednesday’s (June 9) CMT Music Awards of the R&B star’s song “Hold On.”
In a genre-blending moment that was reminiscent of Stapleton’s breakthrough performance at the CMA Awards with Justin Timberlake back in 2015, the duo absolutely shredded on their respective guitars and blended their powerhouse vocals impeccably, with Chris’ rasp perfectly complementing H.E.R.’s smooth tone.
After absolutely crushing the song, the critically acclaimed pair bowed down to each other in a sweet “we’re not worthy” moment. CMT Awards hosts Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown even seemed flummoxed by how good the performance was, remaining speechless for a moment before introducing the next act.
H.E.R. debuted “Hold On” late last year, performing the song for the first time on Saturday Night Live in October.
Watch the full performance below:
