It’s time, finally, to give this unprecedented year a proper send off. The kind where we started looking for the silver linings in the cloudy year, and we realized that even though this year looked different, CMT did their very best to make it sound the same. By finding new — and most importantly, safe — ways to bring you the country music that brings you comfort just when you need it most.
Here are our top three CMT moments from 2020.
1. CMT GIANTS Kenny Rogers: A Benefit For MusiCares
After we lost Kenny Rogers in March, it was a bittersweet honor to put together a show full of tributes and songs from the country legend’s superstar friends like Dolly Parton, Lady Antebellum, Lionel Richie, Michael McDonald, Randy Houser, Rascal Flatts, Vince Gill, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires, Jennifer Nettles and more filming their parts from their own homes. Best of all, the show helped raise money for the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund created to provide funds to help the thousands of music creators and industry professionals who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. (Read more about the special hosted by Rita Wilson here.)
2. Kelsea Ballerini & Halsey CMT Crossroads
Back in March, before the Covid-19 pandemic turned our worlds completely upside down, CMT Crossroads did what CMT Crossroads does best. We put pop star Halsey and country singer Kelsea Ballerini on stage together to talk about their genuine and mutual appreciation for each other’s music and to sing those songs on stage. They performed each other’s hit songs, obviously, but there were others too. Like their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” (Revisit some of the other highlights of the special here.)
3. Off the Road with Kane Brown
Just because he wasn’t on the road after the pandemic hit doesn’t mean Kane Brown wasn’t on. He kept himself, his band and his team busy with Zoom songwriting sessions, fixing up his man cave at home, making his “Worship You” video, getting new tattoos (from an artist who makes house calls), and basically basking in the glow of fatherhood spending time with his new baby girl Kingsley Rose. (Find out more about Brown’s entire quarantine life here.)
For the rest of the top 10...head over to the CMT website.. http://www.cmt.com/news/1829076/kane-brown-kenny-rogers-kelsea-ballerini-and-more-made-our-best-of-2020-list/
