Carrie Underwood Pushed For 2019's Female-Centric CMA Awards

Carrie Underwood Pushed For 2019's Female-Centric CMA Awards

The CMA Awards this year will place an extra special emphasis on the talented women of country music. The evening will start with a "historic, not-to-be-missed" performance from some of country's most iconic female singers including one of the co-hosts for the evening, Carrie Underwood. As it turns out, one of the driving forces behind the female-centric theme this year was the twelve-time host herself.

"When we started talking about the CMAs this year, thinking about what theme we might have... I definitely was kind of pushing for a tribute to females in country music," she says in a recent interview.

Lack of female presence on country radio has been a hot topic for a while now, though Underwood recognizes 2019 as a time when people actually decided to do something about it.

"I feel like right now, this year in country music, a lot of us have decided to put our money where our mouth is," she says, adding, "I feel like we've been talking about needing more of a presence of women in country music."

"I'm not the only female headlining tour with all-female acts," she says. "I feel like we all decided, 'Well, we['re] just gonna have to do it ourselves.'"

This year, Underwood traveled to 60+ cities across the country for her "Cry Pretty Tour 360." Doing her part in the push for female recognization, Underwood brought Maddie & Tae and Runaway June along with her as opening guests.

Additionally, fellow female country star Miranda Lambert also hit the road for an all-female tour. The "Roadside Bars And Pink Guitars Tour" featured Maren Morris, Elle King, Pistol Annies, Tenille Townes and Ashley McBryde as opening acts.

Joining Underwood as co-hosts for the night are country icons Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire.

"It's all about just lifting each other up, supporting each other with Dolly and Reba," Carrie shares. "I feel like we all get to be ourselves. We're all adding our own lines to to the script, and wanting to be ourselves, but also just wanting to lift each other up, support each other."

Tune in for country music's historically big night broadcasting live from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, November 13 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo: Getty Images


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