The most controversial moments CMA Awards history

Apparently so ticked off to see pop-country artist John Denver nominated in the Entertainer of the Year category at the 1975 CMA Awards, Charlie Rich set fire to the nomination card that announced Denver as the winner. Later, Rich’s son, Charlie Rich Jr., would describe the incident as a joke and said that his father held no animosity toward Denver. 

In 1990, Mary Chapin Carpenter was just beginning to break through in country music, and she scored a coveted performance slot at that year’s CMA Awards. Instead of playing anything from her new record, Carpenter went for an irreverent, surprise performance of her previously unreleased song “Opening Act.” Because Carpenter was out on the road with Dwight Yoakam at the time, many fans saw it as a jab at her fellow traditionalist, but she’s never confirmed that he’s the artist who inspired that tongue-in-cheek ode. 

At the 1993 CMA Awards, there was no bigger topic than the racy, bright red gown worn by Reba McEntire. McEntire wore the dress to perform her hit duet “Does He Love You” alongside Linda Davis, and the crowd reportedly gasped upon seeing it! Fifteen years later, McEntire showed that she’s still full of fire and wore the dress again at the 2018 Academy of Country Music Awards. 

On Oct. 4, 1995, Shania Twain brought a decidedly racy performance of her song “Any Man of Mine” to the 30th annual CMA Awards. Starting in the crowd and making her way to the stage, Twain flirted with Tim McGraw and Marty Stuart and then jumped in Travis Tritt’s lap before the performance was over. 

At the 1999 CMA Awards, Alan Jackson was mad that his friend and mentor, George Jones, wasn’t given due credit, so he went rogue and decided to pay tribute to Jones himself. After Jones was given only about a minute of stage time to play his song “Choices,” nominated that year in the Single of the Year category, Jackson launched into the song in the middle of performing his own CMA-nominated song, “Pop a Top.” 

At the 40th annual CMA Awards in 2006, both Carrie Underwood and Faith Hill were nominated in the Female Vocalist of the Year category, and Underwood took home the trophy. When Underwood’s win was announced, the camera was on Hill, and it caught her yelling “WHAT?” Many fans viewed that as jealousy of Underwood’s win, but Hill has maintained since that she was joking and described Underwood as a “talented and deserving winner.” 

In 2014, Brad Paisley stirred minor controversy with a joke inspired by "Black-ish," the ABC sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross. “If any of you tuned into ABC tonight expecting to see the new show 'Black-ish,' yeah, this ain’t it,” Paisley quipped. “In the meantime, I hope you all are enjoying White-ish.” Some saw the comment as racist, but many viewed it as a reflection of country music’s ongoing lack of racial diversity.

At the 2016 CMA Awards, most fans were thrilled to see Beyonce join the Dixie Chicks on stage for a medley of her song “Daddy Lessons” and the Chicks’ “Long Time Gone.” But some country traditionalists, including Alan Jackson and Travis Tritt, weren’t fans of the collaboration, and Jackson reportedly got up out of his seat at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and walked out during the performance.

It didn’t technically happen inside Bridgestone Arena, but modern outlaw Sturgill Simpson set up outside the CMA Awards in 2017 to protest everything from mainstream country music to Donald Trump, whom he described as a “fascist.” Simpson streamed his busking on Facebook and collected donations for the ACLU while answering questions from passersby. 

At the CMA Awards in 2017, hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood took aim at political figures, including Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Paul Manafort. Even though the jabs were pretty even-handed between the parties, fans still weren’t thrilled that Underwood and Paisley were talking about politics on country music’s biggest night. 

In 2018 there was no bigger song in country music than "Meant to Be," a country-pop collaboration between Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line. At the 2018 CMA Awards, Florida Georgia Line's Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley were joined by Rexha for a performance that was extremely controversial among country traditionalists who criticized the song's chart success as part of the "popification of country music." 

When the 2019 CMA Awards rolled around, fans were sure that this was the year that Carrie Underwood would take home the Entertainer of the Year trophy. But instead of Underwood's name, Garth Brooks's was called, and that inspired significant backlash. Especially from fans who wanted to see a woman win the award for the first time since 2011, when Taylor Swift took home the trophy. 

In 2021, the CMA Awards banned country star Morgan Wallen from receiving any nominations at the annual event, despite his massive popularity. The ban came after Wallen was heard on video using a racial slur, which stirred a major controversy over racism in the genre. Wallen was welcomed back into the fray in 2022, earning two nominations including one in the coveted Entertainer of the Year category.

When the CMA Awards were held in November of 2020, many criticized the organization for holding an awards show during some of the most serious days of the pandemic, as hospitals struggled and thousands of Americans contracted the virus each day. Many artists originally scheduled to perform had to cancel due to positive COVID tests, and some argued that country legend Charley Pride might have been exposed to the virus at the ceremony, which occurred just weeks before his death. 

2022 was a huge year for Morgan Wallen, even though he was roundly criticized after a video of him drunkenly using a racial slur went viral on social media, earning him a ban from the 2021 CMA Awards. When he returned to the CMA Awards in 2022, Wallen had two nominations and performed his song "You Proof," inspiring criticism from those who felt that he had not done enough to repair the harm caused by his language.