The 2021 CMT Music Awards are in the books, with Carrie Underwood once again walking away with the top award, Video of the Year, for her John Legend collaboration “Hallelujah.” The win is Carrie’s ninth in the category, and her third in a row. It also extends her record as the most awarded artist in CMT history with 23 wins.

The night was also a very good one for the show’s two hosts, Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini. Kane won two awards, Male Video of the Year for “Worship You” and Collaborative Video of the Year for his Chris Young collab “Famous Friends.” Meanwhile, Kelsea won CMT Performance of the Year for her 2020 CMT Music Awards performance of “The Other Girl” with Halsey. She used her acceptance speech to call out haters who criticized the performance as not being country enough noting the win shows fans know “where my roots are.”

Other winners include: Gabby Barrett, Female Video of the Year for “The Good Ones,” Little Big Town, Duo/Group Video of the Year for “Wine, Beer, Whiskey” and Dylan Scott, Breakthrough Video of the Year for “Nobody.” Taylor Swift even won an award for Best Family Feature for her video for “The Best Day (Taylor’s Version),” tweeting “I Love You Mom” after her win.

• The show also honored Linda Martell with the second annual CMT Equal Play Award. Linda is the only black woman to ever make the Top 20 Country Airplay charts (in 1969) and the very first black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry. In a video clip she talked about her career and the discrimination she faced throughout it. Her contribution to music was celebrated by such artists as Mickey Guyton, Rissi Palmer, Rhiannon Giddens, Jennifer Nettles (the first recipient of the award), Darius Rucker, and Carrie Underwood.

As usual, the CMT Music Awards were filled with a whole bunch of great performances, which once again took place at various locations across Nashville. Performances included:

• Lady A opened the show with their latest single “Like A Lady,” and was joined by Carly Pearce, and Lindsay Ell on guitar.
• Chris Stapleton performed a roaring rendition of “Arkansas” outdoors at the Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester, Tennessee. He later returned in studio for a show-stopping collaboration with H.E.R. on her song “Hold On.”
• Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall performed “Tequila Does” sitting around a campfire strumming their guitars.
• Kelsea Ballerini and Paul Klein from LANY gave fans the world premiere of their brand new song “I Quit Drinking,” which ended with them singing in a downpour.
• Tenille Townes, at the White Limousine rooftop bar in Nashville, performed “Lady Like” surrounded by flowers, and then was joined by JP Saxe, for his song “Like That.”
• Breland and Mickey Guyton performed the perfect country road trip song “Cross Country.” Gladys Knight then joined them for a joyous performance of “Friendship Train.”
• Carrie Underwood teamed with NEEDTOBREATHE for the band’s brand new song “I Wanna Remember” from the Bonnaroo Farm.
• Kane Brown and Chris Young closed the show with their CMT Award winning song “Famous Friends,” complete with plenty of pyro, and quite an entrance from Kane, who popped out from behind some huge cardboard faces of big country stars.

• And that wasn’t all. Other performances included: Luke Combs singing “Cold As You,” Thomas Rhett performed “Country Again,” Lauren Alaina and Jon Pardi performed their collab “Getting Over Him,” Brothers Osborne and Dierks Bentley teamed for “Lighten Up” from Bonnaroo Farm and Luke Bryan performed “Down To One,” with fireworks going off in the background.

• The show also highlighted rising stars on the Ram Truck Stage, with performances from Blanco Brown (making his first performance since his motorcycle accident), who performed “Nobody’s More Country,” Dylan Scott, who played his number one hit “Nobody,” Hailey Whitters, who sang “Fillin’ My Cup,” Lainey Wilson, who performed her new single “Things A Man Oughta Know,” Niko Moon, who performed “Good Time,” and Tenille Arts who sang “Somebody Like That.”

2021 CMT MUSIC AWARDS WINNERS LIST

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

• Carrie Underwood & John Legend – “Hallelujah” – WINNER
• Kane Brown – “Worldwide Beautiful”
• Keith Urban with P!nk – “One Too Many”
• Kelsea Ballerini – “hole in the bottle”

FEMALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR

• Carly Pearce – “Next Girl”
• Gabby Barrett – “The Good Ones” – WINNER
• Kelsea Ballerini – “hole in the bottle”
• Maren Morris – “To Hell & Back”
• Mickey Guyton – “Heaven Down Here”
• Miranda Lambert – “Settling Down”

MALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR

• Chris Stapleton – “Starting Over”
• Darius Rucker – “Beers and Sunshine”
• Kane Brown – “Worship You” – WINNER
• Luke Bryan – “Down To One”
• Luke Combs – “Lovin’ On You”
• Thomas Rhett – “What’s Your Country Song”

DUO/GROUP VIDEO OF THE YEAR

• Brothers Osborne – “All Night”
• Lady A – “Like A Lady”
• Little Big Town – “Wine, Beer, Whiskey” – WINNER
• Old Dominion – “Never Be Sorry”
• Parmalee and Blanco Brown – “Just The Way”
• Runaway June – “We Were Rich”

BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO OF THE YEAR

• Dylan Scott – “Nobody” – WINNER
• Hailey Whitters feat. Little Big Town – “Fillin’ My Cup”
• HARDY – “Give Heaven Some Hell”
• Lainey Wilson – “Things a Man Oughta Know”
• Mickey Guyton – “Black Like Me”
• Niko Moon – “GOOD TIME (Ride Along Video)”

COLLABORATIVE VIDEO OF THE YEAR

• Carrie Underwood with John Legend – “Hallelujah”
• Chris Young and Kane Brown – “Famous Friends” – WINNER
• Elle King and Miranda Lambert – “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)”
• Keith Urban with P!nk – “One Too Many”
• Ryan Hurd with Maren Morris – “Chasing After You”
• Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard – “Undivided”

CMT PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards – Brooks & Dunn and Luke Combs “1, 2 Many”
• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards – Dan + Shay “I Should Probably Go To Bed”
• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards – Jimmie Allen and Noah Cyrus “This Is Us”
• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards – Kelsea Ballerini and Halsey “The Other Girl” – WINNER
• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards – Little Big Town “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”
• From CMT Crossroads – Nathaniel Rateliff and Margo Price “Twinkle Twinkle”

BEST FAMILY FEATURE

• Brooke Eden – “Sunroof”
• Kane Brown – “Worship You”
• Luke Combs – “Forever After All”
• Miranda Lambert – “Settling Down”
• Russell Dickerson – “Home Sweet”
• Taylor Swift – “The Best Day (Taylor’s Version)”