Photo Gallery: Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Florida Georgia Line and Thomas Rhett Shine at the “CMT Artists of the Year” Show

It was a night of a thousand stars last night (Oct. 19). OK, maybe 10 or 12 stars, but still, it was a big night for Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line, who were honored at the CMT Artists of the Year show, which airs tonight (Oct. 20) on CMT.

The event, held at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, celebrated five artists selected by CMT as top artists of the year. In addition, Kelsea Ballerini was honored with the second annual Artists of the Year Breakout Award and Shania Twain received the third annual Artist of a Lifetime Award.

The night was filled with performances from all the award honorees, which included some big collaborations. Thomas Rhett was joined by Swedish singing sensation Zara Larsson on a mashup of TR’s’ “Die a Happy Man” and Zara’s “Never Forget You”; Luke Bryan performed his No.1 duet, “Home Alone Tonight, with Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild; Carrie Underwood was joined onstage by The Love Junkies—songwriters Liz Rose, Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsay; and Kelsea Ballerini, Jill Scott and Meghan Trainor collaborated on a tribute to CMT Artist of a Lifetime recipient Shania Twain.

 

You can check out the full show when it airs Thursday (Oct. 20) on CMT at 9 p.m. ET. Don’t miss all the performances and speeches from CMT’s Artists of the Year.

Watch a sneak peek of Kelsea Ballerini, Jill Scott and Meghan Trainor’s tribute to Shania Twain with “Man! I Feel Like A Woman.”

Get More:

Main photo and performance photos by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for CMT; Red Carpet photos by Curtis Hilbun/AFF-USA.COM

Blogs

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2025

Tim Allen says “Toy Story 5” will focus a lot on Jessie the cowgirl, and that Buzz and Woody will reunite.  The sequel hits theaters June 19th, 2026. Morgan Wallen just released the full 37-song tracklist for his upcoming album, “I’m the Problem”.  1.  Morgan co-wrote 22 of the 37 songs on the album.  2. …

THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2025

When a batter is coming up to the plate, the stadium will play them a walk-up song that the player chooses that best represents them. And Country music is DOMINATING. Here are the most popular country walk-up songs in Major League Baseball . . . Notice how four of the top five are COUNTRY. 1. …