Country women lift each other up at CMT Artists of the Year

NASHVILLE — This one’s for the girls, during a night when CMT honored all female stars, from Loretta Lynn to Carrie Underwood and Kelsea Ballerini, at their annual Artists of the Year show in an empowering night of lifting up each other.

Although female artists still struggle to get airplay, the women saluted each other for breaking through the barriers in the industry on Wednesday night in Nashville, Tennessee.

Underwood ended the show with a medley of iconic songs from Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” supported by two all-female groups Runaway June and Maddie and Tae.

In her acceptance speech, Underwood told the women gathered in the room that they were the backbone of the industry.

“You are not here because you are women,” Underwood said. “You are here because you are dang good.”

Sissy Spacek, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Lynn in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” said Lynn was a trailblazer whose honest lyrics made her unlike any other songwriter in the genre. Lynn, who is 86 and just released a new album, “Wouldn’t It Be Great,” last month, was unable to attend the show and Spacek accepted the honor on her behalf.

Spacek called her “my sister, my best friend” and teared up a bit on stage.

“She’s just direct and authentic,” Spacek told The Associated Press on the red carpet before the show. “She tells it like it is. She can say things that you and I couldn’t say, or would be afraid to say.”