November 11, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/Image Group LA2020 has been the biggest year of Carly Pearce’s musical career to date, with her success underscored by an early CMAs win for Musical Event of the Year, courtesy of her hit duet with Lee Brice, “I Hope You’re Happy Now.”

But personally, Carly sums up 2020 as being “single-handedly the hardest year of my life.”

This summer, the singer filed for divorce from her fellow artist Michael Ray after just eight months of marriage. Now, she tells People that the breakup left her questioning everything.

“I truly thought I was gonna die,” Carly says. “There were moments I seriously did not know if I could breathe. It was awful. It is awful.”

The singer stresses that she doesn’t consider her marriage a mistake. “My love was real. I will stand by that forever,” Carly notes.

While she declines to mention the specifics of how the relationship fell apart, Carly does explain that divorce wasn’t something she took lightly.

“This was not a flippant decision,” she adds. “This was something that I really took time to make sure I was doing the right thing. It was very clear that this was not the marriage I wanted.”

As she looks ahead toward the future, Carly is bolstered by the support of her close friends. The same woman who served as her maid of honor will be accompanying her to the 2020 CMA Awards, and she feels a lot of warmth and love from her musical community, too.

“I feel like country music keeps hugging me when it knows I need it…I just feel this huge hug of, like, ‘We got you.’ And it’s awesome,” Carly says.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

November 11, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

CMA/ABCDan + Shay and Justin Bieber weren’t expecting to have to wait so long before performing their hit duet, “10,000 Hours,” together. They put out the song over a year ago, and were anticipating lots of big, on-stage moments over the course of that year — but 2020 had other plans.

“We had grand plans to perform the song on each other’s tours and stuff, but none of that happened this year,” the band mates admit ahead of tonight’s CMAs. “So to get to do it on national television for the first time is a bit nerve-wracking, but it’s gonna be amazing.”

The COVID-19 pandemic might have shut down the duo’s live plans for the song this year, but they say they’re pouring all that energy and excitement into their performance on the stage of the awards show.

“We’ve got a really cool setup. We’re excited about what it’s gonna look like,” Dan + Shay hint, adding that “10,000 Hours” might sound a little different than fans are used to, too.

“Just the way that we’ve arranged the song, and the way that we’re doing it, is definitely a little bit of a different spin on the song,” they continue. “So we’re pretty excited about it.”

“10,000 Hours” is headed into tonight’s awards show up for 2020 Single of the Year. The song was also nominated for Musical Event and Music Video of the Year, two categories whose winners were announced ahead of the show.

The 2020 CMA Awards kicks off tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

November 11, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

CMA/ABCCarly Pearce has had to do some fancy footwork in order to perform her CMA-winning single, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” at the 2020 CMA Awards tonight.

That’s because just days before the show, her duet partner, Lee Brice, tested positive for COVID-19 and needed to step down from their planned duet performance.

“I was so upset for Lee,” Carly says. “And he was so upset, and we were really looking forward to this moment. But in the same sense, I was so grateful to the CMAs for immediately reassuring me they wanted me to be a part of the show. And they understood this song, it’s meant to be a duet. It’s not meant for me to sing by myself.”

Cue Lady A’s Charles Kelley, who quickly stepped in as Lee’s substitute. With the clock rapidly racing toward their performance, Carly says that she and Charles have already gotten a chance to rehearse the song.

“That’s how quick Charles stepped in and was, like, the real MVP,” the singer continues. “To be honest with you, it sounds like we’ve been singing it together forever.”

Ahead of tonight’s show, Carly is already a 2020 CMAs winner. On ABC’s Good Morning America, it was announced that she and Lee and won the Musical Event of the Year trophy for “I Hope You’re Happy Now.”

The 2020 CMA Awards air tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

November 11, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/CMAAs the country music world counts down to the 2020 CMA Awards tonight, Jimmie Allen is reflecting on how Darius Rucker’s role as host will impact representation of Black artists in the genre.

“It’s a big deal,” the singer and New Artist of the Year nominee says. “Because you figure the only other Black person that hosted was Charley Pride in 1975, with Glen Campbell.”

Not only is Jimmie performing his hit “Best Shot” on the CMAs stage tonight, he’ll also be a big part of that representation when he presents Pride with the 2020 Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.

But the most important thing, Jimmie stresses, is young audience members seeing that it’s possible for Black performers to make it in country music.

“It’s gonna be some…young Black kid flipping through that television and seeing Darius hosting the Country Music Awards. Like, ‘Wait, what? I can do country music?’ The crazy thing is, a lot of people don’t know there are Black country artists,” he reflects. 

“I feel like if we’re all about equality and inclusiveness, we should represent that in our programming, in our formats and our genres of music,” Jimmie continues. “Every ethnicity, every culture should have some sort of representation.”

The 2020 CMA Awards kicks off tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

November 11, 2020 • No Comments • Country Music News

CMA/ABCAhead of tonight’s show, the CMA has revealed that Kelsea Ballerini will take the stage at the 2020 CMA Awards to perform her new single, “hole in the bottle.” She’s the final new performer to be announced.

That song comes off of Kelsea’s self-titled third studio album, which first came out in March. A few months later, in September, Kelsea dropped an acoustic, introspective re-imagined version of the project, titled Ballerini.

But Kelsea’s addition to the program isn’t the only surprise the CMA had in store: They also revealed more details about co-hosts Darius Rucker and Reba McEntire’s performance on tonight’s show.

Darius and Reba will debut the world premiere performance of their version of “In the Ghetto,” a tribute to the late performer and songwriting legend Mac Davis, who died in September. The Lubbock, Texas native was a successful crossover artist who penned hits for Elvis Presley, including “A Little Less Conversation” and “Don’t Cry Daddy,” as well as “In the Ghetto.”

But the co-hosts’ rendition of the song isn’t limited to a big awards show moment. They’re also releasing the recorded version, which will be available tonight at midnight ET following their performance.

The 2020 CMAs will kick off on Wednesday night at 8PM ET. You can watch the show on ABC.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.