The 2023 CMT Music Awards took place on Sunday, April 2nd, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Showcasing the hottest established, and upcoming country artists in the world. The state of country music seems to be in a very strong place right now. The genre has been expanding in to a lot of different areas, becoming more inclusive, more collaborative and creating a lot of new country sounds. The 2023 CMT Music Awards showcased a lot of these new artists tonight. Some of them aren’t exactly new, but perhaps new to the country genre itself, or not exactly household names until this past year. With that being said, the show was kicked off by one of the most iconic country names in Blake Shelton, performing one of his biggest hits ‘No Body’.

From Nashville to Austin…

There was a little controversy over the fact that the awards show moved from it’s home of Nashville, Tennessee for 50 years to Austin, Texas this year. This was because they moved the show to the spring and couldn’t secure a location in Nashville, also cited that Austin has a rich history of country music.

This year, the awards show was hosted by Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown, whom also performed of course. Plus, Kane Brown and his wife Katelyn Brown took home the biggest prize of the night for ‘Video Of The Year’ thanks to their successful music video for the duet ‘Thank God’.

However, I’d say the biggest winners of the night were Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson whom both won multiple awards. Jelly Roll has strong roots in hip hop, but then made the successful turn to country music. Which as tonight proves, was a brilliant move indeed. Lainey Wilson has been crushing it lately, we’re not surprised with that iconic voice she has. Many of you have seen her guest starring on Yellowstone and ya can’t turn on the TV without hearing her Ram truck commercial with her award winning track ‘Heart Like A Truck’. They both performed their big hits tonight as well. The huge success of Jelly Roll should be a big boost for the independent artists we work with too, as he’s not signed to a major label himself.

The big winners this year

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Kane Brown & Katelyn Brown – “Thank God”

FEMALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Lainey Wilson – “Heart Like a Truck”

MALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Jelly Roll – “Son of a Sinner”

GROUP/DUO VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Zac Brown Band – “Out in the Middle”

FEMALE BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Megan Moroney – “Tennessee Orange” 

MALE BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Jelly Roll – “Son of a Sinner”

COLLABORATIVE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson – “Wait in the truck”

CMT PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Cody Johnson – “‘Til You Can’t” (from 2022 CMT MUSIC AWARDS)

CMT DIGITAL-FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Jelly Roll – “Son of a Sinner” (from “CMT All Access”)

The Next Big Stars of Country Music

But, with all of the success of these artists above and seeing how fast the faces of country music seem to change. We wanted to make some predictions of who we think will be the next big stars of country music and could grace the stages of the CMT Awards in the coming years. Some of these artists we actually interviewed recently, so obviously we’re a bit biased. O.N.E. The Duo recently debuted their music video for ‘Feels Good’ on CMT, and were at the CMT Awards. I even saw on their socials that they got to sing some of ‘Feels Good’ with the one and only Shania Twain backstage! Alex Miller had a successful run on American Idol. Mae Estes recently made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry. Melissa, Josh and Shayna have all been releasing hit after hit recently!

• Melissa Livingstone – Interview Here
• Mae Estes – Interview Here
• Alex Miller – Interview Here
• Sheyna Gee – Interview Here
• Josh Melton – Interview Coming!
• O.N.E. The Duo – Interview Here

Spotify playlist of our favorite breakout country artists