51st Annual Country Music Association Awards

The 51st Annual Country Music Association Awards, commonly known as the 51st CMA Awards, was held on November 8, 2017, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.^[1] The ceremony recognizes some of the best country music released during the eligibility period (between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017^[2]). It is the twelfth ceremony to be held at the arena, the eighteenth to be held in November and the tenth night to be co-hosted by country stars Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood.^[3] The ceremony will be directed by Paul Miller.

The nominations for the 51st CMA Awards were announced on September 4, 2017, on Good Morning America by Lauren Alaina, Dustin Lynch, and Brothers Osborne.^[4][5] The nominees were led by Miranda Lambert (5) and followed by Keith Urban and Little Big Town (4). Chris Stapleton won his third win as a Male Vocalist. Miranda Lambert won her seventh win as a Female Vocalist, after a year hiatus.

Winners and nominees

Note: The winners are shown in Bold.

Performers

^[7][8]

^ A.Joined by Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire, Little Big Town, Thomas Rhett, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Kelsea Ballerini, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

Presenters

• Brittany Snow and Ruby Rose - presented Single of the Year
• Bobby Bones, Karlie Kloss, Brett Young and Luke Combs - presented Song of the Year
• Joanna Garcia-Swisher and Jason Ritter - presented New Artist of the Year
• Tyler Perry - presented Album of the Year
• Sugarland (Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush) - presented Vocal Duo of the Year
• Brett Eldredge, Dustin Lynch and Lea Michele - presented Vocal Group of the Year
• Michelle Monaghan and Jimmie Johnson - presented Female Vocalist of the Year
• Trisha Yearwood - presented Male Vocalist of the Year
• Reba McEntire - presented Entertainer of the Year

Reception

The 51st Annual CMA Awards received 14.29 million viewers, the highest ratings since 2014 (which received 16.1 million. Among adults 18-49, the show received a 3.2 rating, up from the 2.9 rating of the previous year.^[9]

The ceremony was noted for its unusually political subject matter, specifically in the opening monologue by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, who took shots at both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.^[10] HuffPost noted how the hosts "ignored the pleas by the CMA to make the ceremony apolitical" by performing a parody song about Trump's tweeting habits to the tune of Underwood's hit "Before He Cheats".^[11]

Underwood's performance during the in memoriam, in which she broke down crying, received acclaim, with many citing it as one of the best and most moving and emotional performances of the night^[12][13][14] and some declaring it one of the best CMA performances of all time.^[15] People.com referred to the performance as "heartbreaking", before describing how Underwood took to the stage to honor country music legends (such as Don Williams, Glen Campbell, Troy Gentry and Jo Walker-Meador) and the 58 victims of the Las Vegas shooting.^[16] In addition, ET called Underwood's performance "beautiful" and "gorgeous", mentioning a statement made by Paisley at the opening of the show about coming together in the face of tragedy.^[17] The performance did receive some criticism due to the cameras focusing more on Underwood, making some of the names on the screen either obscured or completely unreadable, which was seen by many as disrespectful.^[18]

Garth Brooks, who won the prestigious Entertainer of the Year award, was heavily criticized for lip-syncing during his performance. Of his decision, Brooks stated that "we made a game-time call on whether to sing to a track or lip-sync and we decided to lip-sync it. My voice just isn't going anywhere, and we wanted to represent country music as best we can".^[19]

References