Las Vegas will be on the hearts and minds of everyone tonight on the 51st Annual CMA Awards.
That fact isn’t lost on co-host Carrie Underwood, who tells Parade magazine how last month’s tragic shooting at Route 91 Harvest festival will affect this year’s show.
“Every day things change in the world. That’s ongoing,” she says. “We’ve gotten used to news changing and different events happening the closer we get to the CMAs. But this one—we lost members of our family in our fans. Because they are members of our family.”
Carrie’s co-host Brad Paisley goes on to say, because of the events in Las Vegas, the 2017 CMA Awards “feel[s] more important.”
“It makes it feel like we’ve got to say loud and proud that country music is here to stay," Brad says. "It’s not going anywhere. That live music is very important. There’s a reason people gather in the thousands to listen to people like us perform. In that sense, we’ve got to keep the heart and the soul of this intact. I think you’ll see this show has a real theme of unity. That’s important right now.”
Watch the CMA Awards live from Nashville tonight at 8/7c on ABC.
Cody hosts iHeartRadio’s red carpet broadcast at the CMAs live on Facebook, beginning at 5 P.M. CT.
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