Country Music Awards 2017: Highlights

Country music has had a renaissance of sorts on this side of the pond in the past few years, thanks probably to the Taylor Swift effect, the annual C2C Festival and a new wave of home-grown country acts, all championed by Radio 2 stalwart Bob Harris.

Here, he introduces highlights from the 51st annual CMA Awards – the industry’s most prestigious bash – from Nashville, Tennessee. For the tenth year running, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are our hosts, ever the picture of charm and Southern hospitality. There will be performances from Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Eric Church and Keith Urban, and collaborations with husband and wife Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and star-on-the-rise Maren Morris with once-Directioner Niall Horan. The spectacle is always delightfully over the top, and the vocal performances hard to beat.