Nashville has a ‘Crush’ on Little Big Town ballad
Chris Stapleton wins for best new artist, male vocalist, album
The Country Music Association certainly felt a Girl Crush Wednesday night, but it also showed a lot of love to an up-andcoming Kentucky country rocker and an icon on the rise.
Little Big Town won single, song ( both for Girl Crush) and vocal group of the year at the 49th annual CMA Awards, held live at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, and country rocker Chris Stapleton went three-for-three in his categories: new artist, male vocalist and album of the year for Traveller.
The top prize, however, went to Luke Bryan, who made it backto-back wins taking home entertainer of the year.
“This is the best business in the world with the best people. What an amazing group of people to be in this with,” Bryan told the crowd, citing fellow nominees Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church and Miranda Lambert.
But even Bryan couldn’t help giving a shout-out to the biggest winner of the evening: “Watching Chris Stapleton have this night is so uplifting.”
Stapleton called his trio of wins “an unbelievable thing for me, and I’m not going to take it lightly.”
He was emotional mentioning his late father and thanking his wife (“The best parts of me come from her”), but let his music do the talking as well. He turned in a rousing live rendition of the old George Jones song Tennessee Whiskey alongside Justin Timberlake, a performance that Florida Georgia Line backstage called “probably the toughest act to follow of the night.”
The Stapleton/Timberlake power couple was also a favorite of Lambert, who won a recordsetting sixth consecutive female vocalist award. “I’m going to go home and practice,” she said of the duo, wearing a glittery Stapleton T-shirt and pink hair highlights.
Lambert, who performed her single Bathroom Sink, also hinted at her very public split with Blake Shelton as she accepted her award: “I needed a bright spot this year.”
Girl Crush proved to be a major victory for Little Big Town, and Kimberly Schlapman pointed out it was the group’s 17th year together this month.
“We could never have dreamed up where God was going to take us on this journey,” she said. “We’re so grateful for every single step of the way and for your sweet hearts and your sweet faces who brought us here.”
Florida Georgia Line introduced its new single Confession right before winning for vocal duo — its third win in the category. In another debut, Church performed the title song from his new surprise album, Mr. Misunderstood, that he sent to his fan club on CD and vinyl Tuesday and released digitally a day later.
Church and Hank Williams Jr. opened the show with Are You Ready for the Country, while Brooks & Dunn were back together again alongside Reba McEntire to do her song Why Haven’t I Heard From You and the duo’s Play Something Country.