The CMA Awards Got It Right

It has very often not been the case. But after covering the CMA Awards for decades, the voters of the Country Music Association got it right this year, with the right winners at the right time.

It had to be an all hands on deck effort. Get The Chief the Entertainer of the Year Award! He was a contender in years past, and should have rightly won last year. But he has it now, and is no longer the Susan Lucci of A-list Country music stars.

Was Luke Combs the happiest loser ever of the EOY Award? He was fist pumping and literally jumping for Church. Combs won Male Vocalist and Album, as he should have. The EOY would have been premature. His time is coming whenever concerts begin again.

Morgan Wallen was the right pick, too, in the New Artist category. It’s why “SNL” wanted him. He is very strong with Gen Z females, just to name one of his fan bases, and has had hit after hit. All five of those nominees were strong. He was stronger.

He didn’t win, but it is very easy to see that Jimmie Allen is showing big growth every year. He’s maturing and just getting better.

Maren Morris is a crossover artist, and may be more widely heard than any of her peers with the exception of just winners Dan + Shay. Morris is a progressive, and not afraid to take a progressive stand online or onstage. “The Bones” and the rest of her catalog are strong. Her three wins were a just victory.

The voters got it right on a year where everything else is screwed up. So many huge and important Country artists/songwriters have died. The show was justifiably tribute-heavy. But still, no time to acknowledge Billy Jo Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker or John Prine in some way? Maybe at the tag of the Joe Diffie tribute? Something.

Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker are great, but were they great as hosts? Is that the magic combination? Probably not.

The behind the scenes situation with the media is not just a 2020 thing. The heavy hand of ABC with the CMA is way out of whack. The AP packed up and left this year over a photo rights dispute, and others should have too. If you are an ABC-affiliated media, you are golden. Everyone else is feeling like the kids during rush week in the movie “Animal House.” They know what they do, from the nominations on ABC instead of at a news conference like the Oscars to red carpet access -- all of it. Favorites are played, and it does hurt how the artists are covered or not covered. Long overdue, but unlikely changes are needed.

And image … will anyone write that? Even though everyone was tested for COVID-19, the event had the look of a big super spreader with hugs, no masks, etc. These are not normal times, and it’s about to be a very rough, pre-vaccine winter. In a subliminal way, no masks at a huge party seems to be the wrong message. We shall see if that even gets talked about.

Three cheers to good old Charley Pride, with a rambling and honest acceptance speech. It was great!

The setting was beautiful, as expected. This award show is always beautifully staged. The pre-taped performances were, in some cases, not obvious at all. Keith Urban in Australia and the Beeb at Hollywood Bowl were just like another day at the office.

Three hours is a very long show. This one ran out of gas a few times. Still, it was better than the competition this year. We sure missed at least 20 of the A-list stars that were absent due to COVID, or just not there.

Answer this: Wouldn’t it have been better to see pre-taped Willie Nelson or Garth Brooks talk into something ran than some of these presenters that I still don’t know who they were or why they were there? More familiar COUNTRY stars, the fan favorites, pre tape them. Tie them into the show. Make it look like Country’s biggest night.

It is mission impossible on any year. With the virus, really mission impossible. Congrats to the CMA voters for your choices, and to the showrunners who did the best with what they were given to work with. Award shows need reinvention, and the way PR is done for the CMAs is in bad need of reinvention.