Long-time readers will note that 2025 was the first year in recent memory that we didn’t post a Picks & Predictions or “If Ran the CMAs…” type preview for the annual CMA Awards.
Moreso than other competing obligations, that was a matter of apathy. Neither Kevin nor I had any real vested interest in this year’s slate of nominees or performers. By and large, the nominees simply were not a reflection of what we believe has been a remarkable influx of high-quality work in the genre’s mainstream space.
Lainey Wilson and Zach Top? They’re fine. They just aren’t the caliber of artists we’re most excited about, to say nothing of rote nominations for Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, and Brooks & Dunn, or the embrace of a handful of inferior quality acts.
We found it real hard to care this year.
But there were a few noteworthy surprises among this year’s crop of winners and a couple of real highlights among the performances.
2025 CMA Award Winners
Entertainer of the Year: Lainey Wilson
Female Vocalist of the Year: Lainey Wilson
Male Vocalist of the Year: Cody Johnson
Vocal Group of the Year: The Red Clay Strays
Vocal Duo of the Year: Brooks & Dunn
New Artist of the Year: Zach Top
Musician of the Year: Paul Franklin
Album of the Year: Whirlwind, Lainey Wilson
Single of the Year: “You Look Like You Love Me,” Ella Langley & Riley Green
Song of the Year: “You Look Like You Love Me,” written by Ella Langley, Riley Green, and Aaron Ratiere
Vocal Event of the Year: “Pour Me A Drink,” Post Malone feat. Blake Shelton
Music Video of the Year: “You Look Like You Love Me,” Ella Langley & Riley Green
A few (red clay) stray thoughts:
The nights three leading nominees were Wilson, Ella Langley, and Megan Moroney, but the prevailing narrative was that this was to be a big night for Zach Top. Top has been widely credited– whether that’s accurate or not is up to debate– as responsible for the influx of 90s-era neotraditionalism into the mainstream after the Bro- and Boyfriend-Country trends. He was widely predicted to appeal to the CMAs’ more traditional-leaning voter base and walk away with several of the five awards he was up for.
That didn’t happen. He won New Artist Of The Year over weak competition and gave a charming, funny acceptable speech, and he turned in a solid performance of “Guitar,” likely his next single. But this wasn’t a coronation of a new superstar as some had expected the night to be.
The night’s biggest moments, instead, came from three acts who are adjacent to the genre’s mainstream. Brandi Carlile was joined by the iconic Patty Loveless for a powerful rendition of Vince Gill’s “When I Call Your Name,” turning in a masterclass of vocal technique and harmony work in tribute to Gill.
Stephen Wilson, Jr. earned two performance spots: On a collaboration with Shaboozey, and a solo cover of “Stand By Me” that captured SWJ’s riveting emotional intensity. That intensity stands in contrast to the more laid-back style of most of the genre’s current stars, which made for all the more striking a performance.
The Red Clay Strays, who have stated that they don’t consider themselves a country band per se, also threw down a blistering rendition of their single, “People Hatin’.” It created a stark counterpoint to Old Dominion’s phoned-in medley of their utterly unremarkable hit singles later in the show and fully justified the Strays’ surprise upset win in the Vocal Group Of The Year category.
Perhaps the night’s most surprising win, though, was veteran Paul Franklin’s Musician Of The Year triumph– his first win in 33 nominations. And, in terms of musicianship, Charlie Worsham accompanied Lainey Wilson on her opening number, and Steve Martin and Allison Brown riffed on their banjos prior to presenting Album Of The Year.
Beyond the Red Clay Strays and Franklin, other winners seemed more perfunctory: Brooks & Dunn taking a 16th Vocal Duo Of The Year win, Wilson winning Album Of The Year for a pedestrian effort, and “You Look Like You Love Me” sweeping Single, Song, and Music Video Of The Year after winning for Vocal Event in 2024. There isn’t a narrative arc there beyond voters’ overall laziness.
With one exception, the remaining performances were otherwise just unremarkable. But Moroney turned in the most appalling performance I’ve seen on an award show in decades. She didn’t hit a single note in tune and gasped for air throughout “6 Months Later” in a way that should be a three-years-overdue wake-up call that she is just flat-out not cut out for this. The performance was such an indefensible mess that the CMAs haven’t even posted it to their YouTube channel alongside the night’s others, presumably to save Moroney and the people who nominated her for a “vocalist” award the embarrassment.
But, all in all, it was more of a middling night for the CMAs than anything worth getting worked up over. There’s no reason to anticipate that the Red Clay Strays win will suddenly open the doors for Turnpike Troubadours next year or that a horrific performance will mean the industry will abandon Moroney. The 2025 CMAs were really just Music Row business as usual.
Two notes from me:
1. It’s super weird that a collaboration won Single, Song, and Video – but not Vocal Event.
2. I get that it’s different competition and all of that, but it just feels VERY wrong that Lainey Wilson now has 2 EOTY wins while Carrie and Miranda have 0 between them.
I mentioned that “You Look Like You Love Me” *did* win Vocal Event Of The Year… in 2024. Which means that it won Single, Song, Music Video, and Vocal Event– all of the categories in which a track can be recognized. Far as I’ve been able to tell, it’s the first track ever to run the table like that.
Which begs the question: REALLY?
And it also won Single, Vocal Event, and “Visual Media” at the ACMs, losing in their Song category to “Dirt Cheap.” So 7/8 of the possible awards it could’ve won in the industry.
Again: … REALLY?
I think Wilson is fine, and she’s grown as a performer. But a two-time winner of EotY? I don’t see it. But better her than some of her contemporaries who could be recognized in her place.
I’ve cooled a lot on Lambert and was never super on board with Underwood, but it’s completely absurd– if consistent with Music Row’s misogyny– that they never won that award at their respective commercial and artistic peaks.
Sorry yeah, my point is more that rule is so weird to me. How can songs win in two different years? I know it’s happened before and in even crazier ways like where songs win Single and Song in different years. It’s just so wild to me.
Oh, that rule is maddening. Labels should have to hedge a bet on submitting things in just one year, rather than double-dipping. That and the 15 years overdue merge of the Vocal Duo / Group categories are the two most obvious, immediate changes the CMAs need to make.
I had to chuckle (to avoid shaking my head in disgust) when Lainey Wilson made what I thought was a very hopped-up comment:
“Country music isn’t a genre, it’s a lifestyle.”
This iss very obtuse of her on both counts, in my opinion. Country is a genre, and it used to be about a way of life, and not a mere “lifestyle”. She really should know a hell of a lot better than that.
I don’t know that Wilson’s ever really given me reason to suspect that’s a thing she would actually know (better), but I did also think it was a pretty misguided comment. Or hell, in a lot of ways, she’s not wrong to say that country has been reduced to a bunch of in-group lifestyle signifiers, but I don’t think that’s the good thing she seemed to be implying.
It also gave a, “Tell me you didn’t listen to COWBOY CARTER without telling me you didn’t listen to COWBOY CARTER,” impression.
Megan Moroney at the 2025 CMAs made even the most infamous award show disasters – JMM “I Swear,” Sara Evans “Cheatin’,” and Taylor Swift “Rhiannon” – sound better in retrospect.
And Lainey Wilson is the Monkey’s Paw answer to our two decades of pleading that women get their due at these ceremonies.
“Whiskey Colored Crayon” notwithstanding, I still really like Whirlwind.
I wish there was a video of the Vince Gill tribute and speech posted, because I obviously did not watch the show.
It’s so interesting that the only two performances not posted online were the very best and very worst ones! Tribute performances always get posted, so I’m surprised Brandi and Patty haven’t been added to the CMA channel yet.
Whirlwind, other than that song, is all right. The CMAs, ACMs, and Grammys have all rewarded worse, for sure. It just feels a piece with some of the other lazy votes this year. I thought that was actually Zach Top’s safest bet after New Artist.
They’ve finally posted the Vince tribute. It’s awesome that they had Brandi Carlile do it, but I’m surprised that the CMA made that choice. I wonder how it happened? She did a fantastic job, of course, though I would’ve liked to have heard Patty more prominently!
I only watched about half of it and saw all I needed. The CMAs carefully choreographed effort to exile Carly Pearce from the face of the Earth (nominating a retro act like Lambert just to snub her) is just too much to bear. I kind of wished I’d seen the Moroney appearance just to have witnessed the wreckage of a car crash, but since Moroney being out of her depth isn’t part of radio’s storyline, I suspect it’ll disappear into the ether forever. I nearly laughed out loud at Lainey’s selection as Entertainer of the Year….or Brooks and Dunn selected as top duo for that matter.
I mentioned this on our BlueSky account– there’s a 15 second clip of the Moroney performance I snagged posted, too, to make a point– that Pearce’s shunning by the industry has been wild. Music Row has a long and gross history of putting women out to pasture after winning Female Vocalist, but the way Pearce’s radio and awards support immediately dried up is without precedent.
My suspicion is that recording a second album that focused on what a shitheel Michael Ray was during their marriage was a bridge too far. A woman can criticize a male artist for one divorce album, but doing a second album? Now she’s a “problematic woman” who doesn’t know her place, particularly as the industry has gotten more brazenly right-wing in the last few years.
Which album of Pearce’s was her second divorce album? Hummingbird? I actually have all her albums so far and like her a lot. But really, given all her albums? If he was that bad he probably deserved a second album.
Depending on how you want to count them, you could argue that either the “Chiseled in Stone” version of “29” or “hummingbird” continues the “Michael Ray sucks, and here’s how” theme. Either way, I think there’s a perception that she went to that well once too often; we know Music Row will always rally around a man at the expense of a woman.
The fact that they’d consider her “going too far” because of an artist they haven’t cared for in a while is pretty wild. It was her experience, she’s simply telling her story of how her forever after didn’t happen and it’s after effect. Anyway I’m not surprised they’ll oust someone with a storyline while playing Jason Aldean who has been singing about the same thing for years now (nothing).
Ah that was why I wasn’t sure. Either way the albums are good. I don’t think anyone was saying Loretta Lynn or Dolly Parton went to the wells of their past or their own experiences in general too often, were they? But agreed, it isn’t just Music Row that will likely rally around a man at the expense of a woman either but from reading on here, I get that Music Row certainly does.
I even like Megan Moroney’s albums but I can’t disagree with a lot of the critiques of her on here. I feel like you’re being honest, not derogatory. To be fair I haven’t sought out live performances of hers – partly due to said critiques.
Yeah I agree. Carly shines on those kinds of songs but I think radio expected her to move on from the divorce sooner than she was ready to.
In general I like Lainey Wilson fine; she’s not great but not bad either. But my goodness the only thing keeping her from being the most overexposed person in country is the fact that Jelly Roll exists.
Don’t say his name two more times, or he’ll appear.
His absence from this show was *noteworthy*. After being a ubiquitous figure at industry awards for the last five years, that he wasn’t a presenter, performer, or award winner seems like a significant shift.
Which is fine by me. I question some of Wilson’s persona, but he’s one of the most disingenuous acts the genre’s ever seen.
I have nothing against Megan Moroney as a person, I am sure she is absolutely nice. But the fact there are so many other women signed to major labels that don’t even get a fraction of her success is just completely depressing and frustrating. It would be awesome if acts like Carter Faith, Priscilla Block, Emily Ann Roberts, and even more beyond those acts had the success and commercial appeal that Moroney gets.
Like Megan Moroney has been around for a few years now, and she still sounds off-key as possible on stage. It is borderline embarrassing.
Always happy to see you, Raymond!
This is really a huge part of my issue with Moroney, yes, and something I mentioned on BlueSky in response to some pushback that being a good singer isn’t necessary for being a great country artist.
It’s galling to me that there are only a maximum of three spots allocated for women in the genre’s mainstream. For years, it was Underwood and Lambert “plus one.” Now it’s Lainey Wilson “plus two,” and it seems like those two have settled firmly on Moroney and Langley.
Those spots are always reserved for white women, obviously. So the idea that one of those spots is taken by someone who is so *incompetent* in a foundational element of being a recording artist? When there are dozens of women– including other conventionally “hot” young blonde white women, to say nothing of so many women of color and LGBTQ+ women– who can sing and write her off any table in Nashville? Oh my God, it’s not okay.
I’m going to have to see just how bad the Megan Moroney performance was, aren’t I?
Lainey Wilson’s pronouncement of country music as ”a lifestyle, not a genre” is…something I would absolutely expect from a mainstream Nashville star ca. 2025, and I do NOT mean that as a compliment.
It was really nice to see Zach Top get a win for at least one of the awards he was nominated for. Would’ve been nice if he’d gotten Album of the Year, but…at least it wasn’t Morgan Wallen? Along those lines, I’ve never been particularly keen on Cody Johnson, but good for him for snagging Male Vocalist.
Considering how many albums he’s played on in his time as a Nashville session musician, the fact that Paul Franklin is only now winning Musician of the Year is…batshit insane, if you ask me.
I think that The Red Clay Strays winning Vocal Group of the Year this year brings back memories and reminds me of The Mavericks winning Vocal Group of the Year 30 years ago in 1995-1996 despite little radio success. A big night for real, traditional country music with big wins for Brooks & Dunn (Vocal Duo of the Year), Zach Top (New Artist of the Year), Paul Franklin (Musician of the Year, long, long overdue, Should have happened years ago), The Red Clay Strays (Vocal Group of the Year) and Cody Johnson (Male Vocalist of the Year) plus Vince Gill as this year’s recipient of the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award as well. The golden age for real, traditional country music has to be from the 1940’s to 1999 (the end of the 1990’s). After 2000, I think that real, traditional country music largely disappeared from country radio and mainstream success at award shows. so to see real, traditional country music coming back in such a big way this year at the CMA’s brings back so many great and wonderful memories of years and decades past from the 1940’s-the 1990’s (which is the golden age of real, traditional country music from the 1940’s-the 1990’s IMO. especially the 1950’s-1990’s). It is very special to see real, traditional country music come back in such a big way at the CMA’s this year. As a big and a huge fan of Classic Country Music, I’m so very happy and excited about it. I love Country Music from the 1940’s-1990’s (especially the 1950’s-1990’s), I’m a huge Country Music Fan and My Mom (who passed away two weeks ago on November 4 at the age of 61 from lung cancer which she had been suffering from for three and a half years since 2022) taught me how to sing and talk when I was just a little toddler and I’m Autistic and I’m 29 years old (I will be 30 on April 11, I was born on April 11, 1996, so I will be 30 on April 11, 2026). My all-time favorite Country Artist is Garth Brooks. I’ve idolized him since I was 2 years old. I love all the legends and older artists more than the newer and more modern and current artists of today after 2000. I much prefer the classics from the 1940’s-1990’s (especially the 1950’s-1990’s) than the more newer and modern and current music of today after 2000. So to see real, traditional country music have such a big night at the CMA’s this year is getting me emotional and misty-eyed talking about it and My Mom is smiling down on me and watching me from up above in heaven. I miss hearing real, traditional country music of the 1940’s-1990’s (especially the 1950’s-1990’s) on the radio and in record stores, These are the true classics of country music. So Long Live Real, Traditional Country Music, Long Live Classic Country Music and Long Live Country Music Baby.
I think I might be in the minority but I’m not here remotely for Lainey, she’s about to suffer from over exposure real soon. Outside Nashville/music row, she’s just another singer who doesn’t exactly stand out. Personally her music doesn’t stand out to me, her songs are mostly wordy and not particularly memorable. Maybe I’m getting old and miss those days when singers didn’t always write their songs but got songs and made them theirs, maybe.