Awards
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Kelsea Ballerini took the stage at the 2024 CMT Music Awards on Sunday night (April 7) to perform her throwback hit, “Love Me Like You Mean It,” but not everyone was a fan of her bold fashion choice. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The 30-year-old country […]
Maren Morris was nominated for performance of the year with Hozier for their 2023 duet on his song “Take Me to Church” from CMT Crossroads at Sunday night’s (April 7) 2024 CMT Awards. But in a pair of Instagram Story videos posted earlier in the day the 33-year-old “The Bones” singer told fans she would […]
You don’t want to miss Elton John & Bernie Taupin: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which will air in primetime on PBS stations nationwide on Monday (April 8). (Check local listings.)
The two-hour special was taped during a tribute concert at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. on March 20. Billboard had a (lucky) correspondent in the room, who filed this report.
The success of the show is a tribute to the quality and range of the songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, of course, and also to smart production choices by Ken Ehrlich, who executive produced and wrote the show. Ehrlich, who oversaw the annual Grammy telecast for 40 years, incorporated talk segments with both songwriters, as well as Elton’s long-time music director Davey Johnstone; past Gershwin Prize recipients Sir Paul McCartney (the only previous British honoree), Carole King, Stevie Wonder and Emilio & Gloria Estefan; and Robert Hilburn, the former Los Angeles Times pop music critic whose rave review of Elton’s 1970 show at the Troubadour in L.A. gave the singer a big boost.
Those talk segments provide much context and insight. In one, Elton said how much American music has always meant to him. “Thank you, America, for the music you’ve given us all over the world. It’s an incredible legacy that you have – all the wonderful blues, the jazz, classical, all the songs the Gershwin brothers [George and Ira] wrote. It’s just incredible. … I’m so proud to be British and to be here in America to receive this award, because all my heroes were American.”
Elton also put his music with Bernie in the context of the Great American Songbook. “We write songs that we hope will last. And our songs have lasted – and so have the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hammerstein, all those wonderful people. The Cole Porters of the world. They wrote classic songs, and once you write a classic that people love, it never goes away.”
Elton’s band backed the various artists, leading Elton to say “This is the first time in my life where I have sat in the audience and listened to my band. And I know they’re good, but they’re amazing!” He also paid the ultimate tribute to his partner. “He gives me the lyrics and then I write the song. Without the lyrics, I’d be working in any record store in the world.”
Elton John and Bernie Taupin: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is a co-production of WETA Washington, D.C.; Ken Ehrlich Productions, Inc.; and the Library of Congress. It will be available via broadcast and streaming on PBS.org and the PBS App.
An end title card dedicated the show to Tony Bennett, the 2017 Gershwin Prize recipient, who died in July at 96. The show honoring Bennett and last year’s show honoring Joni Mitchell both received Primetime Emmy nods. This show also deserves Emmy consideration.
All but one of the 14 songs performed on the show appeared on Billboard’s 2022 ranking The 75 Best Elton John Songs: Staff List, which was keyed to the star’s 75th birthday that year. If you missed it, here it is. Read it before or after the show, but not during. You don’t want to miss a moment.
Here are all the performances on the show ranked from least to most memorable. (Three artists performed multiple songs. We listed their songs together.) No shade to the performers who aren’t ranked high: The competition for “best of the night” honors was fierce. And how can Elton not be No. 1 on his own tribute? We’ve all heard him sing his songs many times, so there was no element of surprise there like there was with the top three selections.
Charlie Puth, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (1974)
We look at all the performances featured during Sunday night’s (April 7) CMT Music Awards in Austin, Texas.
To hear Jelly Roll tell it, the three prizes he took home at Sunday’s (April 7) 2024 CMT Music Awards don’t hold a candle to his ultimate reward: seeing Bunnie XO, his wife of eight years, getting all the shine she deserves.
In an interview with Billboard News’ Tetris Kelly on the CMT red carpet Sunday, Jelly Roll beamed when asked about how amazing it was to see Bunnie doing a hosting gig backstage and her other solo endeavors.
“The coolest moment I’ve had this entire process is … when I walked out, they had a placard with my name for where my seat was and then her placard,” Jelly said proudly. “I was like, ‘You’re not a plus-one no more, baby! You’re a seat!’”
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Jelly was the biggest winner at Sunday night’s CMT Awards, heading into the show with a leading three nominations and leaving with all three awards — his second year in a row to take home a trio of hardware at the CMTs. The singer/songwriter was especially honored to be facing some very friendly competition for video of the year in Cody Johnson and Kelsea Ballerini, the night’s host; Jelly Roll eventually took home the fan-voted top prize, for “Need a Favor.”
“The coolest part is, Kelsea’s my friend. Cody’s my friend,” he told Billboard News. “And I don’t mean in the way we say friends in the industry – because we’re all ‘friends’ here, right? – but in a real way, of like, I’ve spent real time with them. I’ve spent hours on the phone with Cody, multiple dinners, hung out with him multiple times. I’ve spent real time with Kelsea and Chase,” he said, referencing Ballerini’s Outer Banks star boyfriend Chase Stokes. “These are my friends. So it’s cool.”
Before setting out for his triple-win night, Tetris asked Jelly to describe his breakthrough year in one word.
“Unbelievable,” he said without hesitation. “I’m going to look back one day on all this and be like, ‘What the f— was going on in that decade?’”
Watch Jelly Roll’s interview below:
After a tumultuous youth that found him in and out of jail, Jelly Roll’s winning streak continued at the 2024 CMT Music Awards on Sunday (April 7) at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. The country breakthrough took the stage three times during the awards broadcast to accept trophies, winning every award he was up for that night.
“I want to thank my beautiful wife and my daughter at home,” Jelly Roll said after winning his first on-camera award, for CMT performance of the year. “I sang ‘Need a Favor’ for the first time on national television right here… in that last year you have changed my life in every way I never thought my life could be changed.”
Later that night, Minnie Driver revealed Jelly Roll had won male video of the year for “Need a Favor.” Shaking his head in disbelief, Jelly Roll kissed his wife, Bunnie XO, hugged Cody Johnson (the two pals even kissed each other on the cheeks) and walked up to the stage as the crowd erupted in cheers.
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“My brother, Cody Johnson – ‘The Painter,’ that was one of the best music videos I’ve ever seen in my life,” Jelly Roll raved after besting Johnson for the award. “I’m having one of the greatest nights of my life,” he noted. But the hitmaker’s speech wasn’t just about himself. True to form, he gave an emotional shout-out out the current residents of one of the jails he spent time in growing up, as well as those doing time at Austin’s juvenile detention center. “It’s important that I stand up here tonight and represent those looking for second chances. The kids back in the Metro-Davidson Detention Facility and the kids down here in the Austin Juvenile Detention Facility watching this tonight, I’m cheering y’all boys on. You can be this guy. You can change. You can turn it around. I promise you can, baby.”
Jelly Roll was back on stage after winning the video of the year award, which Billy Bob Thornton handed to him.
“Billy Bob Thornton just gave me my third trophy of the night, y’all!” he shouted. “Cody Johnson, I’m not going to tell you anything up here I don’t tell you on the phone, but I love you brother. You are my favorite cowboy forever and ever and one of my best friends in the business. Kelsea Ballerini, you know what I think of you – you go baby.”
The star also thanked his manager, John Meneilly, his publicist, Jennifer Vessio, his label, Stoney Creek, and of course wife, Bunnie XO. “I am blessed to have you as a best friend, I am blessed to have you as a partner,” he said. He also provided a good-natured heads-up to Gayle King, who co-hosts CBS Mornings. “Gayle King, I’m gonna be a little late in the morning, because we’re gonna party, Austin.”
After that, he took the stage one final time to rip through a performance of “Halfway to Hell,” a top 15 Country Airplay hit from his album Whitsitt Chapel.
Jelly Roll really is on a roll. The powerful singer and colorful personality won a night-leading three awards at the 2024 CMT Music Awards for the second year in a row. The awards, hosted by Kelsea Ballerini, were presented at Moody Center in Austin, Texas, on Sunday (April 7) and broadcast on CBS.
Jelly Roll took video of the year, male video of the year and CMT performance of the year, all for “Need a Favor.” Last year, he won male video of the year, male breakthrough video of the year and CMT digital-first performance of the year, all for “Son of a Sinner.”
“Need a Favor” reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. This is the third year in a row that the music video of the year winner was a top 15 hit on Billboard’s flagship all-genre songs chart. Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown’s “Thank God,” last year’s winner, also reached No. 13. Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood’s “If I Didn’t Love You,” the 2022 winner, reached No. 15.
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Jelly Roll is the first artist to win back-to-back awards for male video of the year since Blake Shelton won in 2013 and 2014 for “Sure Be Cool If You Did” and “Doin’ What She Likes,” respectively.
Jelly Roll’s award for CMT performance of the year was for his rendition of “Need a Favor” on last year’s CMT Music Awards. This year, he closed the show with a performance of “Halfway to Hell.”
Lainey Wilson won female video of the year for the second year in a row. She took the award for “Watermelon Moonshine,” having won last year for “Heart Like a Truck.” She’s the first woman to win in this key category two years running since Carrie Underwood won six years in a row from 2015-20. Wilson’s win here was hardly a surprise. She has amassed seven awards at the CMA Awards in the past two years.
In addition to her win, Wilson performed two songs on the show – her own “Country’s Cool Again” and a cover version of Toby Keith’s 1999 hit “How Do You Like Me Now?!” in a tribute to the late singer.
Dan + Shay won duo/group video of the year for “Save Me the Trouble.” The duo previously won duo video of the year three years running for “Tequila” (2018), “Speechless” (2019) and “I Should Probably Go to Bed” (2020). (The CMT Awards’ separate duo and group categories were combined in 2021. Now that they have three hours to fill, they should make them separate awards again, so they conform with the CMA Awards and the ACM Awards.)
“We Don’t Fight Anymore” by Carly Pearce featuring Chris Stapleton won collaborative video of the year. Both artists are past winners of the award for breakthrough video of the year. Pearce won in 2018 for “Every Little Thing”; Stapleton in 2016 for “Fire Away.”
Ashley Cooke and Warren Zeiders won the awards for breakthrough female and male video of the year, respectively. Many past winners in the CMT new artist category have gone on to very substantial careers, including Dierks Bentley, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt and Ashley McBryde, in addition to the previously-mentioned Stapleton, Pearce and Jelly Roll.
Trisha Yearwood received the June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award. “June Carter Cash was a force, and she was also married to a force – and I know a little bit about that,” she said in accepting the award. She added the she and her husband, Garth Brooks, try to live by the saying “Those to whom much is given, much is expected.” Yearwood also performed the tender ballad “Put It in a Song.”
Host Ballerini was nominated for three awards – video of the year, female video of the year and CMT performance of the year – but didn’t win. But she scored with a performance of “Love Me Like You Mean It.”
Dasha brought her viral hit “Austin” to the 2024 CMT Music Awards on Sunday night (April 7) — and she admitted that it was the first time she had ever been in the song’s namesake city. The singer/songwriter gave the song its live television debut at Austin, Texas’ Moody Center, wearing double denim in a […]
When Toby Keith died of cancer on Feb. 5 at the age of 62, the country world mourned the loss of one of its biggest stars. Notching 20 No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and the Country Airplay chart, Keith was an uncompromising, often controversial figure who followed his own arrow and remained a consistent presence in the genre for three decades.
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So when the 2024 CMT Music Awards took over the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, on Sunday (April 7), it went without saying that the planned tribute to Keith would be one of the evening’s highlights.
Led by Keith’s longtime friends Brooks & Dunn and Sammy Hagar as well as Lainey Wilson, whom Keith mentored, the tribute was supported by Keith’s longtime backing band.
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Baseball legend Roger Clemens introduced the performance, calling Keith “a true friend and patriot.” Clemens noted that in recent years, as Keith was “battling that damn C-word,” the singer “kept his sense of humor and his wit.”
Brooks & Dunn opened the tribute, delivering a rousing rendition of Keith’s breakthrough 1993 single, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” as everyone in the crowd (especially Jelly Roll) sang along.
Then, Hagar turned up the adrenaline for a raucous take on Keith’s 2003 hit “I Love This Bar,” a song that ties into the franchise restaurant the country singer inspired, Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill, which opened in 2005. Introducing the song, the Van Halen legend noted that while it’s hard to get kicked out of your own bar, it’s a feat both of them managed over the years.
After an introduction from Lukas Nelson and Riley Green, Wilson closed it out with “How Do You Like Me Now?!”, the title track to Keith’s 1999 album. The Grammy winner put her whole heart into a joyful, bittersweet performance as Keith’s widow, Tricia Lucas, and children (Shelley Covel Rowland, Krystal Keith and Stelen Keith Covel) watched.
After the performance, a tearful Clemens took the stage and led the entire audience in a Red Solo Cup cheers to the legend: “Whisky for my men and beer for my horses!” he shouted, raising his cup up to the heavens.
The 2024 CMT Music Awards brought together the best and brightest of country music on Sunday night (April 7) to the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, to celebrate the top country videos of the year. Leading the performances on Sunday’s show was an all-star tribute to late country legend Toby Keith, which included Brooks & Dunn, […]