Monday Memos: 2015 CMA Recap

Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘Monday Memos’ we are going to recap the 2015 CMA awards. The show was full of funny moments, awesome awards, and most of all, great music. Once again Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood did a great job as the show’s hosts, and left us all laughing during their opening monologue. In the monologue they recapped some of the hottest pop culture stories from this year including: Donald Trump, man hair buns, the Ashley Madison scandal, the divorces of Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, as well as Kermit and Miss Piggy, and a shout out to country music legend Little Jimmy Dickens who passed away earlier this year. The night was definitely filled with unforgettable moments that made this year’s show the best one yet. Now let’s move on to the awards and then the music. Ready? Ok, let’s go!!!

Awards:

• Single of the Year: ‘Girl Crush’ by Little Big Town

This song was insanely popular this year, so it’s easy to predict that it would take home this win. This song really shows the progression of Little Big Town as a band and will leave us all exited to see what they do next.

• Song of the Year:  ‘Girl Crush’ by Little Big Town

We’ve already covered how amazing this song is so let’s keep going. Ok? Ok.

• New Artist of the Year: Chris Stapleton

If you had never heard of Chris Stapleton before the CMAs, then you DEFINTELY know who he is now. Once we got to see Chris perform at the show (which we’ll talk about later), it was easy to see that he definitely deserves this award (if you didn’t see his performance, you HAVE to check it out below, this video only shows one of the songs, but it’s AMAZING!).

• Vocal Duo of the Year: Florida Georgia Line

If you listened to country music radio this year, then you heard Florida Georgia Line A LOT. The duo has had impressive numbers ever since they first hit the music scene, and that momentum has not stopped. Although this was a tough category, FGL proves time and time again that they deserve this honor.

• Album of the Year: ‘Traveller’ by Chris Stapleton

This was another really tough category, but ‘Traveller’ peaked at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 list, and at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Country chart. With all of the extra exposure that Chris got during the CMAs, we can only expect that his next album will do even better.

• Vocal Group of the Year: Little Big Town:

With such an amazing year and an impressive winning streak at the CMAs this year, it’s easy to see how Little Big Town won this award.

• Female Vocalist of the Year: Miranda Lambert

For years now Miranda Lambert has been an unstoppable force in the music world, and this year was no exception. This year Miranda released 2 singles from her 2014 album ‘Platinum’ called: ‘Little Red Wagon’ (which has sold 432,000 downloads in the US) and ‘Smokin’; and Drinkin’ (which features the night’s big winner Little Big Town).

• Male Vocalist of the Year: Chris Stapleton

Between his performance at the show, and big win as New Artist of the Year, I don’t think we even need to explain this win.

• Entertainer of the Year: Luke Bryan

For the past few years Luke Bryan has been another unstoppable force in country music, and is definitely someone you’ve heard all year long. This year Luke released his newest album ‘Kill the Lights’ (and the 2 singles from ‘Kill the Lights’), which peaked at #1 and #2 on numerous Billboard charts in numerous countries.

Performances: (this was a REALLY tough category because I honestly wanted to write about all of the amazing performances, but I narrowed the list down to 5 so I hope y’all enjoy it):

• Little Big Town ‘Girl Crush’:

Because of all of the buzz that this song has gotten in 2015, this was a very highly anticipated performance that definitely lived up to the hype. The performance featured all of the members of the group on stage with soft lighting that went from blue, to gold, to red, etc. The song was amazing and definitely showed off the group’s beautiful vocal skills.

• Carrie Underwood ‘Smoke Break’:

This recap just wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t talk about the amazing performance from one of the night’s hosts Carrie Underwood. The performance was very cool and really raised the energy of the show. Not only did we get to see Carrie’s phenomenal vocal abilities, but we also saw her awesome guitar skills.

• Chris Stapleton & Justin Timberlake ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ & ‘Drink You Away’:

We couldn’t finish the recap without discussing one of the night’s most talked about performances. The overall number was very cool and had an interesting pop/soul meets country vibe that made it the most uniquely awesome number of the night. It was cool to see Justin Timberlake at the show because he definitely kept the energy of the night up, and we also got to see what a great showman Chris Stapleton is, so it was a certainly a can’t miss performance.

• Brad Paisley ‘Country Nation’:

This was a really fun number that really showed off Brad Paisley’s charisma and natural stage presence. The number included the mascots from numerous colleges, which really hyped up the crowd and made the number truly unforgettable. This performance really showed that not only is Brad an amazing host, but is also an all around phenomenal entertainer.

• Miranda Lambert ‘Bathroom Sink’:

This was another highly anticipated performance that had the internet buzzing all night. Miranda looked awesome with her new pink hair and matching pink guitar, the number was very energetic and proved that Miranda is an entertainer that we can trust to never disappoint us.

• Reba McEntire & Brooks & Dunn ‘Why Haven’t I Heard from You’ & ‘Play Something Country’:

This has to win the award for most anticipated performance of the night. Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn each performed 2 of their big hits, which left the crowd in awe from beginning to end (you can check out a performance of one of these songs below). It’s not often that we get to see two iconic acts perform together, so this number really made this year’s CMAs unforgettable. This was the last performance of the night, and really left the show on a high energy note that was the perfect way to end such an amazing celebration of country music.

• All photos and information used in this blog belong to CMA Awards, Donald Trump, Ashley Madison, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Little Jimmy Dickens, Jim Henson, Steve Whitmire, Bonnie Erickson, Frank Oz, Eric Jacobson, Little Big Town, Capitol Records Nashville, Interscope Records, Lori McKenna, Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose, Jay Joyce, Chris Stapleton, Florida Georgia Line, Republic Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Universal Music Group Nashville, Dave Cobb, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, RCA Records Nashville, Carrie Underwood, Arista Nashville, Chris DeStefano, Jay Joyce, RCA Records, Timbaland, Shawn Carter, Timothy Mosley, Jerome ‘J-Roc’ Harmon, James Fauntleroy, Epic Records, Dean Dillion, Linda Hargrove, Billy Sherrill, Brad Paisley, Chris DuBois, Kelley Lovelace, Luke Wooten, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, MCA Records, Sandy Knox, T.W. Hale, Tony Brown, nashville.com, Ronnie Dunn, Terry McBride, Kix Brooks, Tony Brown, YouTube, ABC, ABCEntertainment, IdolxNews, and all other original owners. I do not own anything in this blog. If any people, corporations, businesses, companies, etc, were not previously given credit for their work, they are given credit now and their previous absence was unintentional. All opinions expressed in this blog are my own. I wrote this blog for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.