A Recap Of The 2025 CMA Awards

It's the day after the CMA Awards, which means they are still probably pretty fresh in your brain. There was a little bit of everything: the good, the bad and the head-scratching.

I always make predictions for all the categories prior to the show and this was the first year where I feel like there weren't major frontrunners.

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A lot of new country artists have broken through in a big way, rather than the top artists winning like has been the case the past decade or so.

I decided I should circle back and see how I did with my predictions. I also have a few random thoughts about the award show.

How Did I Do With My 2025 CMA Awards Predictions? Not Great!

Out of all the categories, I got only four right. I knew I was off to a bad start when they announced the first few winners ahead of the show and I got both of them wrong. Overall, I liked that there were a few surprises.

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The categories I got right were Female Vocalist Of The Year, Vocal Duo Of The Year, Single Of The Year and Entertainer Of The Year. All of the other ones I completely failed! I did have some hunches but chose to go with the safe options in most of the categories.

My Random Thoughts About The 2025 CMA Awards

Overall, I felt like this was one of the tamest CMA Award ceremonies that I remember. By that I mean there wasn't any big, huge standout moment. The closest thing to that would be when Zach Top won for New Artist Of The Year and brought his beer onstage. Still, I didn't see many people talking about any particular moment of the show.

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I absolutely loved Lainey's opening where she sang some of the biggest hits in country music history in front of the artist. Ronnie Dunn was not feeling it but everyone else was and that was fun to see. Lainey can sing anything!

I also felt like there was a slight disconnect because a lot of big stars weren't there at all. There was no Jelly Roll, Carrie Underwood or Thomas Rhett for example. It seemed like many stars opted out for one reason or another or couldn't make it.

I felt like most of the performances were good but there wasn't one big standout moment that I am still thinking about today. I wish that the artists up for Entertainer or Single / Song would perform those songs to make it all feel a little more cohesive.

Maybe I need a few days to let it all soak in! Overall though, I was entertained and am counting down until next year. In the meantime, I will be watching this over and over again.