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As this year’s CMA Awards drew to a close on Wednesday night (Nov. 20), Chris Stapleton became the evening’s foremost winner, picking up three trophies, single of the year, song of the year (both for “White Horse”) and male vocalist of the year. Morgan Wallen took home the evening’s biggest win, entertainer of the year. Meanwhile, Cody Johnson picked up album of the year for Leather. Brooks & Dunn extended their streak of the most wins in the vocal duo of the year category, nabbing a 15th win in the category. Megan Moroney picked up her first CMA Awards win, for new artist of the year, as did Riley Green and Ella Langley, in the musical event of the year category, for “You Look Like You Love Me.”
Outside of the award winners, many of the brightest moments at this year’s show came via a host of performances from artists ranging from legendary artists to buzzy newcomers. The soundscape highlighted a range of music under the country umbrella, including classic Texas honky-tonk, soul and rock fusions and bluegrass-leaning jams.
This year’s performances included several collaborations, including Kelsea Ballerini teaming with Noah Kahan, Post Malone performing with Chris Stapleton and Jelly Roll partnering with Brooks & Dunn on a stirring, gospel-tinged version of Brooks & Dunn’s “Believe,” included on B&D’s new Reboot II album. Plus, Dierks Bentley played alongside a trio of bluegrass music luminaries: Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes.
Artist tributes also contributed to some of the top moments, with Ashley McBryde paying homage the late singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. George Strait was honored with the 2024 CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, and was feted with all-star performances from Jamey Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Parker McCollum, Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson.
Meanwhile, Eric Church continued to bring awareness to those impacted by Hurricane Helene through his stirring performance of “Darkest Hour.”
Every artist brought a unique artistry and talent to the CMA Awards stage. Here, we count down the top performances.
Post Malone Offers Familial Ode on “Yours”
22 years it was first launched in the U.K., ubiquitous music identification app Shazam has announced it has now surpassed 100 billion recognitions.
First launching on Aug. 19 2002, Shazam began its life as an SMS service where users would dial a number, hold up their phones to identify the song being played, and then receive the name and artist via a text message. While it grew in popularity and influence over the years, it was in 2006 that Shazam was launched as an app, before becoming available on both Apple and Android devices in 2008.
By 2011, the service had recognized more than one billion songs, and by the following year, that number had increased to five billion, with the 15 billion milestone following in 2014. In 2017, it was announced that Apple had acquired Shazam for $400 million.
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Now, Apple have announced that Shazam has hit the impressive milestone of 100 billion song recognitions across its lifetime. The news comes just five years after the service celebrated 20 years with news it had surpassed 70 billion recognitions.
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“This monumental milestone not only reflects how much people enjoy using Shazam, but also their appetite for new music,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats in a stateent.
“Music discovery is at the core of everything we do, and we keep innovating to make sure music lovers around the world can tap the Shazam button no matter where they hear music playing!”
Apple have also shared a handful of statstics to put the 100 billion figure into perspective, noting that the number is equivalent to 12 songs identified for every person on Earth, and that one person would need to use Shazam to identify a song every second for 3,168 years to reach 100 billion.
An Apple Music playlist was also created by the company which features the 100 most-Shazamed songs across the app’s lifetime.
Atop the list is Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey” with 45 million identifications to its name, closely followed by fellow Australian act Gotye and his 2012 Kimbra-featuring hit “Somebody That I Used to Know”.
Passenger’s “Let Her Go”, Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect”, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Can’t Hold Us” round out the top five, with acts such as Lewis Capaldi, Hozier, The Weeknd, KALEO, and Sia completing the top ten.
The 2024 CMA Awards, held on Wednesday (Nov. 20) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, had its fair share of snubs and surprises. To be sure, many races went exactly as expected. Old Dominion won vocal group of the year for the seventh year in a row, the longest continuous winning streak in that category’s history. […]
Morgan Wallen was crowned entertainer of the year at the 2024 CMA Awards, which were held on Wednesday (Nov. 20) at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Wallen’s coronation comes less than four years after a career-imperiling moment where he was caught on video using a racial slur, and suggests that he is now back in Nashville’s good graces. (He did come up short in his other six categories this year, so he’s perhaps still not all the way back.) Wallen was a no-show, perhaps sensing that he was still persona non grata.
Wallen’s win for entertainer of the year means that Chris Stapleton has now lost in that category eight times without winning. That’s the most nominations for entertainer of the year without a win. Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood are currently tied for second place on the list of artists with the most nominations without a win (six).
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But Stapleton won three awards on the night, more than any other artist. This brings his career total of CMA wins to 18. Only two other artists have won 18 or more CMA Awards. Brooks & Dunn, who won another award this year, lead with 19 awards. Vince Gill, like Stapleton, has won 18 awards. At this year’s show, Stapleton pulled ahead of George Strait (17 wins) and Alan Jackson (16).
Stapleton won male vocalist of the year for a record-extending eighth time. He’s far ahead of the pack in terms of most wins in the category. Runners-up, with five wins each, are Gill, Strait and Blake Shelton. (By way of comparison, the top winner in the female vocalist of the year category, Lambert, has won it seven times.)
Stapleton also won single and song of the year for “White Horse.” It’s the third time he has doubled up and won both awards on the same night. He also won both awards for “Broken Halos” in 2018 and “Starting Over” in 2021. Stapleton is the first artist in CMA history to win single of the year three times. Stapleton’s single beat a pair of long-running No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone featuring Wallen.
This was also Stapleton’s third win for song of the year. Only two other songwriters have won three or more times in this category. Gill leads with four song of the year wins. Don Schlitz also won it three times.
Lainey Wilson won two awards, second only to Stapleton. She took female vocalist of the year for the third year in a row. She’s the sixth woman to win in this category three or more years in a row. Tammy Wynette was the first singer to accomplish the feat (1968-70), followed by Reba McEntire (1984-87), Martina McBride (2002-04), Underwood (2006-08) and Lambert (2010-15). Wilson also won music video of the year for “Wildflowers and Wild Horses.” This ups her CMA tally to nine wins, all in just three years.
Old Dominion won vocal group of the year for the seventh consecutive year. They’re the first group ever to win in this category seven years running, though they still have a ways to go to catch up to The Statler Brothers for most total wins in the category (nine).
Brooks & Dunn won vocal duo of the year for the 15th time; the first time since 2006. Everyone was wondering if Brothers Osborne or Dan + Shay would win this time, or could The War and Treaty possibly win in an upset? Few thought Brooks & Dunn would reclaim the award they won 14 times between 1992 and 2006. When Brooks & Dunn first won the award, they beat reigning champs The Judds. With this latest win, they beat reigning champs Brothers Osborne.
Megan Moroney won new artist of the year on her second nomination. She lost to Jelly Roll last year. (Artists are allowed two nominations in this category.)
Cody Johnson’s ninth studio album, Leather, won album of the year. Its win was considered a surprise given the strong competition, including Stapleton’s Higher and Jelly Roll’s Whitsitt Chapel.
Guitar player Charlie Worsham won musician of the year for the first time, ending Jenee Fleenor’s five-year hold on the award. With Worsham’s win, steel guitarist Paul Franklin lost in the category for the 32nd time. That’s not a typo – Franklin has been nominated, and lost, in the category 32 times.
Jeff Bridges is many things – and “legendary actor” is certainly one of them. Not only did Bridges bring The Dude to life in 1998’s The Big Lebowski, creating one of the most beloved (and imitated) cinematic characters of the last 30 years, but he beautifully portrayed an alcoholic country singer in 2009’s Crazy Heart […]
More than two decades since it was released, Chicago indie veterans Wilco have announced a 20th anniversary edition of their fifth album, A Ghost is Born.
The new deluxe edition package arrives via Nonesuch on February 7th, 2025 and complements the original recording with a myriad new extras.
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Available in both a nine-CD or nine-LP/four-CD format, the packages include the initial album paired with alternates, outtakes, and demos which chart the record’s conception, in addition to a full 2004 concert recording from Boston’s Wang Center and the band’s “fundamentals” workshop sessions.
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In total, 65 previously unreleased tracks are accompanied by a 48-page hardcover book which features liner notes from Grammy-winning writer Bob Mehr and previously unpublished photos. Alongside its announcement, the band have also shared an alternate version of “Handshake Drugs”, recorded at New York’s Sear Sound in November 2003.
Released in June 2004, A Ghost is Born arrived as Wilco‘s fifth album and as the follow-up to 2001’s difficult (though critically-acclaimed) Yanke Hotel Foxtrot. Peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, it was the group’s highest-charting album up to that point, and garnered reviews that equally labelled it their most “difficult and uncompromising album to date” and “the ever-evolving band’s richest work”.
Notwithstanding, the album went on to be named Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package at the 2005 Grammy Awards, and became revered amongst fans as one of Wilco’s best.
“I was worried the album was going to feel like something dark and not me anymore,” frontman Jeff Tweedy told Mehr as part of the record’s new liner notes. “But the album was ahead of me as a person.
“It was the part of me that I was trying to preserve—enthusiastic and furious about the world, as well as open and loving. I reached that in the music, before I could get there emotionally on my own.”
Temperatures rose at the 2024 CMA Awards when Jelly Roll stepped out onstage for his second performance of the night, joined by Keith Urban for a rousing performance of “Liar.” Backdropped by bursts of flames and rhythmic balls of sparks, the two musicians brought the heat, with the “Son of a Sinner” singer passionately belting […]
Paul Simon might be responsible for writing some of music’s most revered songs, but as he’s revealed previously, he’s progressively becoming unable to hear them.
Last year, Simon explained to British paper The Times that he began to experience hearing loss in his left ear while recording his 2023 song cycle, Seven Psalms. “Quite suddenly, I lost most of the hearing in my left ear, and nobody has an explanation for it,” he explained. “So everything became more difficult.”
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Now in a new interview with CBS Mornings, Simon spoke to reporter Anthony Mason about his journey with hearing loss and his search for ways to manage it.
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“It was incredibly frustrating. I was very angry at first that this had happened,” Simon admitted, noting his greatest fear is the possibility or no longer writing or composing. “I guess what I’m most apprehensive about would be if I can’t hear well enough to really enjoy the act of making music,” he added.
Though Simon wrapped up his final tour in 2018, he’s still making sporadic appearances here and there. Most recently, he performed a surprise set at New York City’s Irish Arts Centre, and weeks prior, he performed for The SoHo Sessions as part of a fundraiser for the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss
“I’m going through my repertoire and reducing a lot of the choices that I make to acoustic versions. It’s all much quieter,” he explained. “It’s not ‘You Can Call Me Al.’ That’s gone. I can’t do that one.”
As part of his CBS Mornings interview, Simon visited with the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss at their Palo Alto, California facilities, discussing how the likes of zebrafish, mice, and other animals are a point of focus for research. While zebrafish have had hearing benefits thanks to a drug which been approved by the FDA, mice are being used as part of gene therapy in an effort to regenerate damaged hair cells.
Per Simon’s own admission though, he tells CBS that his desire to create hasn’t been affected despite his ability to perfectly hear the fruits of his labor.
“You know Matisse, when he was suffering at the end of his life, when he was in bed, he envisioned all these cut-outs and had a great creative period,” he noted. “So I don’t think creativity stops with disability. So far, I haven’t experienced that. And I hope not to.”
With a whopping 44 chart-toppers on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs list, George Strait is a bona fide legend in the genre and beyond. And at the 2024 CMA Awards at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday (Nov. 20), Strait made a rare public appearance to accept the Willie Nelson lifetime achievement award from the Country Music Association.
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The tribute opened with a fiery-eyed, ferocious Jamey Johnson performing Strait’s 2006 single “Give It Away,” a Hot Country Songs No. 1 hit that Johnson co-wrote. (Johnson made headlines just days ago after being arrested in Tennessee on Sunday and charged with speeding and drug possession; Johnson has spoken about his sobriety journey before, but acknowledges that he sometimes smokes “a joint.”)
Miranda Lambert and Parker McCollum followed with Strait’s 2008 single “Troubadour,” a fitting enough song for the 72-year-old legend given that it’s a meditation on music, aging and legacy (“I was a young troubadour/ When I rode in on a song/ And I’ll be an old troubadour when I’m gone”).
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After that, Strait himself proved he’s far from done, taking the stage with Chris Stapleton for a full-throated duet on “Honky Tonk Hall of Fame” from his recent album Cowboys and Dreamers while his wife, Norma Strait, bopped along from the crowd.
“First of allm, I want to thank my lord and savior Jesus Christ,” Strait said after wrapping his performance and receiving a standing ovation from the crowd (including Luke Combs, who mimed bowing down to Strait). “I want to thank the CMAs for adding my name to the incredible artists on this small list of recipients, hearing the name of the icon Willie Nelson.”
He also thanked “these great artists” who performed his songs on the CMA Awards stage. “It’s amazing to hear y’all do them – I’m so glad I got to ‘em before you,” he said, laughing, and adding, “Not you, Jamey.”
After paying homage to some of his departed associates (fiddle player Gene Elders, road manager Tom Foote and manager Erv Woolsey have all passed away in 2024), Strait paid tribute to his closest companion for more than half a century. “I want to thank my family who are all here tonight. My wife Norma, my son Bubba, his wife Tamara, my grandkids Harvey and Jillian,” Strait said. “Especially Norma, who has supported me for just shy of 53 years – it’s been an amazing 53 years.”
The 2024 CMA Awards took over Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday night (Nov. 20) to honor country’s brightest stars, from fresh talent like new artist of the year winner Megan Moroney to CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award honoree George Strait. The awards show — hosted by Luke Bryan, Lainey Wilson and Peyton Manning — was […]