The 2023 CMT Music Awards, the 22nd edition of the awards ceremony, were held at the

Moody Center Moody Center is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) in Austin, Texas. The arena, which replaced the Frank Erwin Center, stands on a former parking lot located immediately south of UT's soccer/track and ...

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, on April 2, 2023. The ceremony was hosted by

Kelsea Ballerini Kelsea Nicole Ballerini (born September 12, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. A five-time Grammy Award nominee, she began having success in the 2010s, being honored with the Academy of Country Music Awards#Special awards, Ge ...

and

Kane Brown Kane Allen Brown (born October 21, 1993) is an American country music singer and songwriter. First garnering a mass following on social media, he released his debut extended play (EP) ''Closer (Kane Brown EP), Closer'' in June 2015, and followe ...

, aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and streamed on

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

; an additional extended edition aired on CMT.

Background

The

CMT Music Awards The CMT Music Awards is a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances. The ceremony launched in 1967 as Music City News Awards; it is the oldest award show currently airing under Paramount Global. The ceremony ...

is country music's only entirely fan-voted awards show. This will be the second edition following the ceremony's move to CBS, the third hosted by Kelsea Ballerini and fourth by Kane Brown. Ballerini dedicated the ceremony to the victims of the 2023 Covenant School shooting.

CMT Equal Play Award

On March 27, CMT announced that country legend

Shania Twain Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain ( ; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time and the best-sel ...

would be honored with the CMT Equal Play Award. The award “recognizes an artist who is a visible and vocal advocate for elevating diverse and underrepresented voices in country music.” Previous recipients include

Jennifer Nettles Jennifer Odessa Nettles (born September 12, 1974) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and record producer. Nettles is the lead vocalist of the duo Sugarland alongside Kristian Bush, and prior to this she fronted the Atlanta-based bands ...

and Linda Martell.

Nominees and winners

Nominees were announced on March 8, 2023.

Performers

Performers were announced on March 23, 2023. Ram Trucks Side Stage

Presenters

Carly Pearce Carly Pearce (born Carly Cristyne Slusser; April 24, 1990) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Her material contains elements of both traditional and contemporary country-pop music. Pearce began performing professionally in her ...

introduced CMT Next Generation of woman 10th anniversary with performance by Alanis Morissette and ladies *

Carrie Underwood Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of ''American Idol'' in 2005, returning as a judge beginning with the twenty-third season. Underwood's f ...

introduced Darius Rucker and Black Crowes performance *

Charles Esten Charles Esten Puskar III (born September 9, 1965), also known professionally as Charles Esten, and (when appearing as himself on improvisation shows or hosting) as Chip Esten, is an American actor, musician, singer-songwriter, and comedian. Es ...

presented Performance of the year *

Darius Rucker Darius Carlos Rucker (born May 13, 1966) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. He first gained fame as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, which he founded in 1986 at the University of South Carol ...

presented Video of the Year *

Dixie D'Amelio Dixie Jane D'Amelio ( ; born August 12, 2001) is an American social media personality and singer known for her videos on TikTok. She is the elder sister of Charli D'Amelio. Early life Dixie Jane D'Amelio was born on August 12, 2001 in Norwalk, ...

introduced Carrie Underwood performance *

Dustin Lynch Dustin Charles Lynch (born May 14, 1985) is an American country music singer and songwriter, signed to Broken Bow Records. Lynch has released six albums and one EP for the label: a Dustin Lynch (album), self-titled album in 2012, ''Where It's At ...

introduced Dixie D' Amelio *

HARDY Hardy may refer to: People * Hardy (surname) * Hardy (given name) * Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica * Mount Hardy, Enderby Land * Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island * Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands Australia * Hardy, ...

introduced Lainey Wilson performance *

Ian Bohen Ian Stuart Bohen ( ; born September 24, 1976) is an American actor known for his role as Peter Hale in MTV's ''Teen Wolf'' and as Ryan in Paramount Network's drama series ''Yellowstone''. Bohen also appeared in a recurring role as Roy Hazelitt in ...

and Jen Landon introduced Lainey Wilson performance *

Jon Pardi Jonathan Ryan Pardi (born May 20, 1985) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Signed to Capitol Records Nashville, Capitol Nashville, he has released five studio albums: ''Write You a Song'' (2014), ''California Sunrise'' (2016), ...

introduced Carly Pearce performance *

LeAnn Rimes Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She originally rose to success as a country music artist at the age of 13 and has since crossed over into pop, contemporary Christian, and o ...

presented Male Video of the Year * Madison Bailey presented Performance of the year *

Max Thieriot Maximillion Drake Thieriot (; born October 14, 1988) is an American actor. He made his acting debut in the 2004 adventure comedy film '' Catch That Kid''. Thieriot has since appeared in the action comedy '' The Pacifier'' (2005), the mystery com ...

introduced Kane and Katelyn Brown performance *

Megan Thee Stallion Megan Jovon Ruth Pete (born February 15, 1995), known professionally as Megan Thee Stallion, is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. Megan initially gained recognition when videos of her freestyling began to circulate widely on social me ...

presented Shania Twain with the Equal Play Award *

Noah Schnapp Noah Cameron Schnapp (born October 3, 2004) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Will Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series ''Stranger Things''. In addition to his work in television, Schnapp had a supporting role in ...

presented the Collabrative video of the year * Parker McCollum presented Breakthrough Female & Male Video of the Year *

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English-American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who rose to prominence as a member of the rock bands the Herd and Humble Pie. Later in his career, Frampton found significant success as a s ...

introduced Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute *

presented Female Video of the Year * Steve Howey introduced Cody Johnson performance *

Travis Kelce Travis Michael Kelce ( ; born October 5, 1989) is an American professional American football, football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 NF ...

introduced Kelsea Ballerini performance

References

2023 music awards 2023 awards in the United States CMT Music Awards April 2023 in the United States 2023 in Texas 2020s in Austin, Texas Long stubs with short prose {{Music-award-stub