The 2017 Country Music Association Awards (CMA Awards) is here and the red carpet arrivals begin at 5:30 p.m. CT/6:30 p.m. ET. The Tennessean is featuring a live stream of the event, which is displayed above. Another live stream taking place, which is the official CMAs red carpet pre-show, is being featured live on twitter. Click here to check it out. Cam, and Sam Alex from “Taste of Country Nights” will also be hosting a CMA Awards red carpet show via YouTube Live and Facebook Live, as reported by Taste of Country. Their live stream will begin at 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET. The event celebrates some of the greatest achievements in country music over the past year and Miranda Lambert is leading with the most nominations, at a total of five. Keith Urban and Little Big Town are following shortly being her with four nominations each. Up for Entertainer of the Year for 2017, are Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Chris Stapleton, and Keith Urban. And, all five of these artists are set to perform tonight as well. The Male Vocalist of the Year nominees include Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton and Keith Urban, while the Female Vocalist of the Year nominations consist of Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Maren Morris and Carrie Underwood.
In addition to Carrie Underwood being a nominee, she is also set to host the show again with her longtime co-host Brad Paisley. This is actually Underwood and Paisley’s tenth time hosting the awards together. Recently, the duo told ABC 7, that, in light of the Las Vegas mass shooting during the Route 91 Harvest festival, “the night will also be respectful, inclusive, and uplifting.” Paisley explained, “Uplifting’s the right word. There’s two ways to approach this: One is to have that gravity, but the other is take that, harness that, and try to do something good and uplifting and unifying, so that’s what we’re trying to do.” Underwood then added, “We’re family, and our fans are part of our family as well. I think it’s just kind of, you know, everybody’s healing a bit, maybe slowly, but healing together.” On October 1, 2017, gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire while Jason Aldean was on stage performing during the festival.
Nashville has already begun celebrating the CMA Awards, with Kelsea Ballerini putting on a celebratory concert this morning, which was featured on Good Morning America. Tonight, Ballerini is set to take the stage with Reba McEntire at the awards and recently, she released her second studio album “Unapologetically.” For Ballerini’s performance with McEntire, the two will be performing her song “Legends” and, while they are coming together for the duet, they are also both vying for the title of 2017 Female Vocalist of the Year tonight. Two of this year’s CMA Awards winners were already revealed on Good Morning America today. The Music Video of the Year winner is “It Ain’t My Fault” by Brothers Osborne and the winner of Musical Event of the Year is “Funny (How Times Looks Away)” by Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson. Tonight at 9 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT, the CMA Awards will air live on the ABC network. AND, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO WATCH THE CMA AWARDS SHOW AIR LIVE TONIGHT, CLICK HERE FOR INFO ON HOW TO WATCH THE SHOW ONLINE.