| 2021 CMT Music Awards | |
| Date: | June 9, 2021 |
| Location: | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Most Nominations: | Kane Brown (4) |
| Most Wins: | Kane Brown (2) |
| Network: | CMT, MTV, MTV2, Logo, Paramount Network, TV Land |
| Previous: | 2020 |
| Main: | CMT |
| Next: | 2022 |
| Viewership: | 0.82 million |
The 2021 CMT Music Awards, the 55th edition of the awards ceremony, were held in Nashville, Tennessee on June 9, 2021. Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini were hosts of the ceremony.[1]
The CMT Music Awards are a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances; Voting takes place on CMT's website. The CMT Music Awards is the oldest MTV awards show, dating its history to the 1967 Music City News Awards. MTV acquired the awards show in 2000. This was the second time the on Duo/Group video of the year category has been combined since 2016.
One of the pioneers for Black acts in country music and the first Black woman to perform solo at the Grand Ole Opry, Linda Martell, was honored at the 2021 CMT Music Awards with the CMT Equal Play Award. The CMT Equal Play Award is a commitment to feature more diverse voices from historically marginalized artists, like Martell. The award was presented by Mickey Guyton and featured video messages from Darius Rucker, Rissi Palmer and Rhiannon Giddens. [2] [3]
Winners are shown in bold.[4] [5]
On May 26, CMT announced some performers for the 2021 CMT Music Awards.[6] [7] The final performers were announced on June 7.[8] Maren Morris and Gabby Barrett were previously announced as performers but both backed out; the former was replaced by Ingrid Andress and the latter by Lindsay Ell.[9]
| Performer(s) | Song | |
|---|---|---|
| Lady A Carly Pearce Lindsay Ell The Shindellas | "Like a Lady" | |
| H.E.R. Chris Stapleton | "Hold On" | |
| Ingrid Andress JP Saxe | "Lady Like" "Like That” | |
| Breland Mickey Guyton | "Cross Country" | |
| Brothers Osborne Dierks Bentley | "Lighten Up" | |
| Carrie Underwood Needtobreathe | "I Wanna Remember" | |
| Chris Young Kane Brown | "Famous Friends" | |
| Chris Stapleton | "Arkansas" | |
| Kelsea Ballerini Paul Klein | "I Quit Drinking" | |
| Lauren Alaina Jon Pardi | "Getting Over Him" | |
| Luke Bryan | "Down To One" | |
| Luke Combs | "Cold As You" | |
| Mickey Guyton Gladys Knight | "Friendship Train" | |
| Miranda Lambert Jack Ingram Jon Randall | "Tequila Does" | |
| Thomas Rhett | "Country Again" | |
| Blanco Brown | "Nobody's More Country" | |
| Dylan Scott | "Nobody"[10] | |
| Hailey Whitters | "Fillin' My Cup" | |
| Lainey Wilson | "Things a Man Oughta Know" | |
| Niko Moon | "Good Time" | |
| Tenille Arts | "Somebody Like That" |
The following have been announced as presenters for the ceremony: