The 53rd CMA Awards: Carrie, Dolly &
Reba Salute The Women Of Country Music
A
S WOMEN STRUGGLE
to make their voices
heard on country radio,
the Country Music
Association will attempt
to help them at its 53rd
annual CMA Awards, set for Nov. 13 at
Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and air-
ing live on ABC. This year’s theme: a
salute to the women of country music.
After 11 years of co-hosting with Brad
Paisley, Carrie Underwood once again
will helm the broadcast. This time,
though, she has enlisted special guests
Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire.
A spirit of solidarity has swept the
women of Music City, with arena
headliners like Underwood and Lam-
bert rounding out their tour lineups
with all-female acts. Other leading
women artists have called out the
THIS YEAR’S BROADCAST, SET TO AIR IN 37 COUNTRIES ON NOV. 13,
WILL ADDRESS COUNTRY MUSIC’S GENDER DIVIDE HEAD ON
BY MELINDA NEWMAN
The 2016 CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime
Achievement Award recipient Parton
(center), pictured with (from left) Kacey
Musgraves, McEntire, Jennifer Nettles,
McBride, Underwood and Lily Tomlin.
“We have one
chance in history
to be able
to bring these
three iconic
women together.
This is a moment
that’s not going to
come back.”
—ROBERT DEATON
E
R
IK
A
G
O
L
D
R
IN
G
/F
IL
M
M
A
G
IC
Players
lack of female inclusivity on country
radio, as well as its trickle-down effect
in the streaming age. In September,
Martina McBride criticized Spoti-
fy’s country algorithm after she was
unable to easily find suggestions for
female country artists to add to a
playlist. “It took 14 refreshes until one
song by a woman came up,” McBride
told Billboard then. “I was shocked.”
It was time for a change, says
longtime executive producer Rob-
ert Deaton. “We have one chance in
history to be able to bring these three
iconic women together,” he says.
“This is a moment that’s not going to
come back.” Both Deaton and CMA
CEO Sarah Trahern have nothing but
praise for Paisley and Underwood’s
tenure, but Deaton notes: “[After]
11 years of nine-minute-long mono-
logues, we were starting to feel [like],
‘Hey, this is getting harder and harder,
and we want to go out on top.’ ”
Each year, the CMA’s 7,400-plus
industry professional members select
nominees and winners. Serendipi-
tously, 2019’s nominations highlight
the tremendous range of the genre’s
female talent that has charted over
the past year. Maren Morris leads all
contenders with six nods, including
album of the year. And after no wom-
en were nominated in the entertainer
of the year category during the eli-
gibility period between July 1, 2018,
to June 30, 2019, Underwood returns
as one of the five finalists. Also, for
the first time in CMA Awards history,
women are nominated in all catego-
ries (except male vocalist), including
musician of the year.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 • WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 6 7