User Reviews

If you watch the CMAs to see the best in country music get recognized you should look elsewhere. Almost every winner was wrong. If you watch for a good monologue from the hosts definitely don't trust this show. But if you want performances from big names and icons you watch the CMA Awards because we got plenty of it here. I don't like having "big name" pop stars stop by, but I understand why ABC does it.

Here we have the 51st Annual CMA Awards and these are the country music Oscars/Grammys of course if you want to call them that, but at least by calling them Grammys, it is a bit unfair because the Grammy ceremonys have been really weak lately and this one here is probably slightly better. This entire show runs for 130 minutes and you can add another approximately 50 minutes of commercials here. Honestly, quite a lot as this is almost one third of the show. Then again, these CMA Awards are struggling a bit with commercialization anyway these days as some rising new artists seem to take it further and further away from the amazing genre of country music. I generally thought it would be nice if it is not always the same faces as it has been for quite some time now, but if the likes of Maren Morris are about to take over (in 2017 not yet as much as more recently), then this event is not taking the directions it should. Of course, they are also not doing themselves many favors by constantly inviting Pink. Or P!nk if you want, I just can't deal with this cringeworthy spelling. It would be so much better to actually pick younger artists who really care about the country background. It may not be pop music, but I am sure there are enough nonetheless and I don't mean with that they have to find guys riding on bulls or something. Just somebody who's got the groove again a little bit more. Anyway, with Halvorson as director and Wild as head writer, they had a gigantic amount of experience in here again. Co-writers O'Dowd and Tilden were also no rookies, especially the former. The latter was in charge of individual segments anyway, not the show as a whole needs to be said and also credited there are hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. These two have hosted many times together already and I am glad they were also in charge back in 2017. So much better than McEntire the years after, even if she was also featured prominently during this show. But they really need Paisley's hosting. He's a lot of fun and elevates Underwood too who I don' perceive this positively otherwise. But I will say a few words on her later on. She got featured a lot during these over two hours. The duo's opening already was a lot of fun with another duo seemingly being very critical of Brad and Carrie and every time they were together on the screen later on, the show also improved a bit. Which admittedly was not super difficult because the material otherwise was not a revelation unfortunately. Not one of the best or worst CMA Awards I have seen and I have seen quite a few lately. Catching up here. As for the winners, they shared the love this time. Nobody dominating the categories and the only one with two wins was Chris Stapleton. A bit disappointing for Miranda Lambert maybe who had the most nominations, but she still won one key category, so good for her. Another big win went to Taylor Swift and I am not too sure what to think of that honestly. I mean you can say some bad things about Underwood, but at least she stayed faithful to this show. Swift did not show up and also she basically betrayed the country music genre as a whole because this was where she started and also where, in my opinion, she was at her best before she sacrificed it all for pointless, commercially successful pop music that feels zero challenging. So big thumbs-down for Swift. If they are still giving awards to her, it seems a bit needy honestly. There are other crucial flaws here. Like Willie Nelson won a minor category, but was not included at all during the broadcast? You can name lifetime achievement awards after him, but what you did here was utterly disrespectful. Same applies too the "Musician of the Year" category, which sounds really important, but is excluded every single year because they only nominate people with instruments there, no singers. Absolutely disrespectful. But then make "Entertainer of the Year" a thing every single year as the biggest category perhaps even? Come on, you're better than that.

The highlight of the show for me was probably Underwood's performance during the In Memoriam sequence. Also, what a dress! I think the song is called "Come Home" or "Softly and Tenderly" and it perfectly fit the occasion. If I had actually known more about most of the deceased, then my eyes might have gotten a bit wet. Great performance from Underwood and if there is any evidence needed that she has an outstanding voice, it's all there. It surprised me a bit admittedly. I know she won American Idol years ago, but I have also seen some pointless pop music with romance references lately and boy did she waste her talent there. Hopefully, she can make the right career decisions in the future. "Come Home" goes soon on my MP3 player for sure. Another highlight is of course the host's wife Kimberly Williams. Loved he since "The 10th Kingdom", which is now 20 years old or so, and apparenly Paisley does not only have decent talent when it comes to hosting, but also amazing taste in women. Also he looks really young for mid40s. The show started with a fun tune involving really many country artists together on stage and this they should do almost every year as far as I am concerned. Sadly, the quality did not stay this solid as the show went on. Many forgettable numbers here really and the usual problem that there were just too many performances on the stage and the awards felt secondary. Or tertiary even as there is no valid reason for these two glaring omissions I mentioned earlier. Definitely not Keith Urban's performance for example. I kinda like the man, but his song was so forgettable and bland that I have a hard time understanding why they nominated him for Entertainer of the Year. Nicole also must have been busy in 2017. Usually, she sits right next to Urban in the audience. But yeah, he is the perfect example of how this ceremony seems to almost always nominate the same people and new artists often have a hard time entering this circle. At least here in 2017, I cannot share the love for Urban at all. He even won one big award. As for the people presenting the awards I have also some question marks. Tyler Perry seems surprising. And what about Lea Michele? Sometimes I am struggling quite a bit with the choices made here, also aside from subjective takes like for me that the lesser McEntire the better. I think this is it then. Kinda enough. Could have been better, could have been worse I suppose. Some fine moments nonetheless, even if I must say that some weak decisions force me to give the overall outcome a thumbs-down this time. Let me close this review by saying that Paisley please must return and host again for the 2021 edition. And that, even if I liked the "Amazing Grace" opening and the Bonnie Tyler cover (Total Eclipse of the Garth haha), they should focus on country music at the heart of this event. And the awards itself of course. A bit sad that I have to say something like that even. Come on, this should be self-explanatory. I believe in you! Thank you folks, that would be all then. But again, get in the instrumental fellas too. They deserve it. "They" would be winner McAnally, Douglas, Franklin, Huff and Wells for the 2017 edition. Bye now.