Entertainment NOW

2 • April 2 - 8, 2023 Entertainment Now By Sarah Passingham TV Media I t's the time of year to celebrate the best songs about trucks, whiskey, small towns, good times and bad benders. The 2023 CMT Music Awards name fan-favorite winners live Sunday, April 2, on CBS, and will be avail- able to stream live and on de- mand on the Paramount+ stream- ing service. The 57th annual cere- mony is making history by pack- ing up from its longtime home in the city of country music, Nash- ville, Tennessee, to broadcast for the first time from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Hosting duties are old (10-gal- lon) hat to country music darlings Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown, who will MC the show for the third consecutive year. Both art- ists are nominated this year, even going head-to-head in the Video of the Year category, where Bal- lerini's music video for "HEART- FIRST" is up against Kane's duet with his wife and fellow singer/songwriter, Katelyn Brown, "Thank God." The Browns will be performing along with country ballad queen Carrie Underwood, who holds the record for most CMT Music Award wins with 25 awards. Underwood boasts two nominations this year for two different videos. "Hate My Heart," her breakup pump-up song from her 2022 album Denim & Rhinestones, is nominated for Video of the Year, while "Ghost Story" (from the same album) is up for Female Video of the Year. There are nine categories that make up the CMT Music Awards, and the winners are determined entirely by fan votes via CMT's website (CMT.com). Early votes really count for the night's top title of Video of the Year, whose 16 nominees became a top six on March 27. From there, it's a race to be one of the final three that will be announced on the day of the show. Social media votes decide the ultimate winner. Joining the aforementioned artists, the rest of the sweet 16 nominees for Video of the Year are "Bonfire at Tina's" by Ashley Mc- Bryde, Caylee Hammack, Brandy Clark & Pillbox Patti; "No Body" by Blake Shelton; "Human" by Cody Johnson; "Worth a Shot" by Elle King featuring Dierks Bentley; "Pick Me Up" by Gabby Barrett; "wait in the truck" by HARDY featuring Lainey Wilson; "Down Home" by Jimmie Allen; "Wild Hearts" by Keith Urban; "Rich Man" by Little Big Town; "Country On" by Luke Bryan; "The Kind of Love We Make" by Luke Combs; "You Proof" by Morgan Wallen; and "AA" by Walker Hayes. Female Video of the Year nominated songs not covered in the Video of the Year race include "What He Didn't Do" by Carly Pearce; "Heart Like a Truck" by Lainey Wilson; "Humble Quest" by Maren Morris; and "Actin' Up" by Miranda Lambert. Wilson leads this year's nomi- nations with four nods, followed by the show's co-host Brown, Johnson and first-time nominee Jelly Roll, who each have three nominations to their name. Jelly Roll's video for "Son of a Sinner" is up for both Male Video of the Year and Breakthrough Male Video of the Year, and his live per- formance of the song from "CMT All Access" earned him a nod in the CMT-Digital-First Performance of the Year. Male Video of the Year nomi- nees "Rock and a Hard Place" by Bailey Zimmerman; "She Had Me at Heads Carolina" by Cole Swin- dell; "Like I Love Country Music" by Kane Brown; "The Kind of Love We Make" by Luke Combs; and "Waster On You" by Morgan Wal- len all join "Human" in a competi- tive race this year. The CMT Music Awards re- wards country music fans not only with the ability to name its show's winners, but it also acknowl- edges how the modern music fan enjoys their music. Who hasn't spent nights watching every live performance clip of their new favorite song in an endless search for the perfect rendition? Well, CMT has done the work and nar- rowed it down for you. Two of the show's categories focus on live performances featured on CMT broadcasts: CMT Performance of the Year and CMT Digital-First Performance of the Year. Notable nominees for CMT Performance of the Year are the "Colors" performance by Black Pumas & Mickey Guyton from the 2022 CMT Music Awards, and from "Coal Miner's Daughter: A Celebration of the Life and Music of Loretta Lynn," Emmy Russell & Lukas Nelson's "Lay Me Down." Scotty McCreery's per- formance of "Damn Strait" from "CMT Campfire Sessions" and Megan Moroney's "CMT Viral to Verified" rendition of "Tennessee Orange" are both up for CMT Digital-First Performance of the Year. Moroney's "Tennessee Or- ange" is also up for Breakthrough Female Video of the Year. What's a night of country mu- sic without collaboration, though, right? Group/Duo Video of the Year nominees include "You" by Dan + Shay; "Summer State of Mind" by Lady A; "Hell Yeah" by Little Big Town; "Take My Name" by Parmalee; "That's How Love Is Made" by The War and Treaty; and "Out In the Middle" by Zac Brown Band. "Worth a Shot," "wait in the truck" and "Thank God" join "Wishful Drinking" by Ingrid Andress and Sam Hunt; "Longneck Way to Go" by Mid- land featuring Jon Pardi; "She Likes It" by Russell Dickerson featuring Jake Scott; and "Where We Started" by Thomas Rhett and Katy Perry in competition for Col- laborative Video of the Year. Tune in for the live broadcast of the 2023 CMT Music Awards Sunday, April 2, on CBS and Para- mount+. Cover Story Carrie Underwood is among the nominees for the 2023 CMT Music Awards Gilded twang: CMT Music Awards name the year's top tracks Farmers Insurance 2 x 2 Letters & Numbers Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every row,every column, and every 4x4 box contains the digits 1 through 9 AND the letters A-F. Solution on page 12.

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