Tonight’s CMT Music Awards, airing live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, promises to pack a diverse musical punch. Hosted by Kristen Bell and Jason Aldean, the show will feature performances from many of the top stars of the genre, including Carrie Underwood, Darius Rucker, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and Country Music Hall of Fame member George Strait.
In addition, Nelly will be featured along with Lenny Kravitz. Also, the house band for the show will be none other than longtime fan favorites, The Mavericks!
But, there will be plenty of chances for some of the format’s new artists to shine, as well. Ashley Monroe, Cassadee Pope, Dustin Lynch, Kree Harrison, Love and Theft, Hunter Hayes and Randy Houser will all be performing on the Nationwide Insurance stage during the evening. It will be the sixth year for the company to be involved as a sponsor of the show.
Predicting the CMT Music Awards is always a little tougher than some of the other award shows, but in the great American tradition of prognostication, let’s take a look at three of the evening’s big categories…
VIDEO OF THE YEAR:
Brad Paisley, “Southern Comfort Zone”
Carrie Underwood, “Blown Away”
Eric Church, “Springsteen”
Florida Georgia Line, “Cruise”
Hunter Hayes, “Wanted”
Jason Aldean, “1994”
Kenny Chesney, “Come Over”
Little Big Town, “Tornado”
Luke Bryan, “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye”
Miranda Lambert, “Mama’s Broken Heart”
Taylor Swift, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
Tim McGraw, “One Of Those Nights”
The overall category features many of the top videos of the past year. While Aldean and Underwood’s clips were very much talked-about, with “1994” being rather exceptional, there is a woman named TAYLOR SWIFT — who has dominated the award shows over the years — and we think that will continue this week.
MALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Blake Shelton, “Sure Be Cool If You Did”
Eric Church, “Creepin”
Hunter Hayes, “Wanted”
Jason Aldean, “Take A Little Ride”
Kenny Chesney, “Come Over”
Luke Bryan, “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye”
The category includes six of the format’s most dependable stars right now, with clips and songs that were talked about a lot. Though Shelton, Chesney, and Aldean have three of the longest-tenured careers here, we think it’s the “relative” newcomers that have the strongest chance here — with LUKE BRYAN having a very good chance to taste victory here.
FEMALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Carrie Underwood, “Two Black Cadillacs”
Faith Hill, “American Heart”
Jana Kramer, “Why Ya Wanna”
Kacey Musgraves, “Merry Go ‘Round”
Miranda Lambert, “Mama’s Broken Heart”
Taylor Swift, “Begin Again”
A very hard category to pick that will likely end up being a contest between Underwood and Swift – a familiar storyline over the years. If anyone has a chance to sneak in and take this one besides them — we would suspect Lambert, but… look for another big win for SWIFT here.
The CMT Music Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CMT.