CMT has announced the second round of performers set to take the stage for the 2021 CMT Music Awards on June 9. The additions are Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett and no fewer than six collaborations: Breland and Mickey Guyton; Chris Young and Kane Brown; Kelsea Ballerini and Paul Klein (from LANY); Lauren Alaina and Jon Pardi; Needtobreathe and Carrie Underwood; and the three-way collab of Lady A, Carly Pearce and Gabby Barrett.
Guyton, a three-time nominee this year, will be performing as part of two collabs on the show. She was already announced as a singing partner with R&B legend Gladys Knight.
“Famous Friends” by Young and Brown is nominated this year for collaborative video of the year. Brown is also hosting the show with Ballerini.
The two-and-a-half-hour show is set to air Wednesday, June 9, at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on CMT, MTV, MTV2, Logo, Paramount Network and TV Land. Performances will be filmed “in and around Music City.”
The first round of performers announced was also heavy on collabs. That first roster included Chris Stapleton and Luke Combs and four collabs: the aforementioned Guyton and Knight; Brothers Osborne and Dierks Bentley; Maren Morris and JP Saxe; and Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall.
All four artists who are booked to perform solo — Bryan, Rhett, Stapleton and Combs — are male superstars, which reflects that country music is still a man’s world, despite recent efforts to put female artists on equal footing.
The CMT Music Awards bills itself as country music’s only entirely fan-voted awards show. Voting is open at vote.CMT.com through Tuesday, June 1, at 3 p.m ET. At that time, the top six finalists will be revealed for video of the year. Voting in that top category will continue through show day, June 9.
The 2021 CMT Music Awards is executive produced by CMT’s Margaret Comeaux and Switched On Entertainment’s John Hamlin and Amy Lin Johnson. Executives in charge of production are Jackie Barba and Heather D. Graffagnino.
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