Kelsea Ballerini Makes Waves Performing With Drag Queens At CMT Music Awards -- After Tennessee Judge Temporarily Blocks Drag Show Ban!

The 2023 Academy of Country Music Awards (AKA the 2023 ACM Awards) nominations are here!

2023 ACM Awards nominees, with HARDY and Lainey Wilson leading the way. Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks will host «Country Music's Party of the Year,» which is set to stream live on Prime Video on Thursday, May 11 at 8 p.m. EDT/7 p.m.

Chase Stokes was one proud boyfriend during Sunday night’s 2023 CMT Music Awards.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic During the opening monolog at Sunday night’s CMT Music Awards, broadcast from Austin on CBS, there was a comedic bit in which Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown exchanged anniversary presents to celebrate their cohosting of the show for the third consecutive time. Brown gave Ballerini a cowboy hat, and she reciprocated by giving him a pink hat to put on in return. At least a few audience members shared a joke about the exchange: By wearing pink, would Brown be breaking Tennessee’s recently passed law that some believe would ban most drag performances in the state, if they were back home? Viewers whose minds went there during that silly opening were just kidding — but Ballerini really went there later in the three-hour telecast, when she chose four “RuPaul’s Drag Race” queens to perform with her as she sang “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too).” That song, off her 2022 album “Subject to Change,” is Ballerini’s anthem of female friendship — and, with the way the CMT Awards routine played out, she very much seemed to be counting drag performers as among those friends. The performance was playful and ostensibly non-political, and in a different year might not have raised very many shaved or unshaved eyebrows. In spring 2023, it was hard to read it as anything other than a statement of: If drag queens are brought down, the rest of us will be dragged down with them.

Chase Stokes couldn't help but fanboy during girlfriend Kelsea Ballerini's CMT Music Awards performance. The 30-year-old  star was spotted dancing and singing along to Ballerini's «If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)» during Sunday's awards ceremony. In a video shared on Instagram by CMT, Stokes was all smiles while lip syncing and shaking his hips to the beat.

The winners are in for the 2023 CMT Music Awards!

The CMT Music Awards 2023 proved to be a big night for Jelly Roll who topped the night as the most-awarded artist taking home three trophies.

She’s all that! Kelsea Ballerini didn’t only slay as cohost of the 2023 CMT Music Awards, but she served stellar looks too.

The winners have been announced at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. The show – which was co-hosted by Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown – was held at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

Date night at the CMT Music Awards! Several stars brought dates to the red carpet in Austin on Sunday, April 2, including both cohosts, Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini.

Kelsea Ballerini kicked off the 2023 CMT Music Awards with a dedication to the victims of the Nashville school shooting. The country music star, 29, said, "On March 27, 2023, three nine-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs along with Dr.

Country music stars focused on fashion while walking the red carpet ahead of the 2023 CMT Music Awards Sunday in Austin, Texas. Kelsea Ballerini wore Dolce & Gabbana to make her red carpet debut with boyfriend Chase Stokes before hosting the show.

Alanis Morissette is about to take over the 2023 CMT Music Awards with an epic performance!

Carrie Underwood meets up with Wynonna Judd on the red carpet the 2023 CMT Music Awards held at Moody Center on Sunday (April 2) in Austin, Texas.

Kelsea Ballerini opened the 2023 CMT Music Awards with a call to action regarding last week's shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, also telling audiences she is the survivor of a 2008 school shooting in the same state. «On March 27, 2023, three 9-year-olds -- Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs -- along with Dr. Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill walked into Covenant School and didn't walk out,» Ballerini began the CMT broadcast.«The community of sorrow over this and the 130 mass shootings in the U.S.

Paying tribute. Kelsea Ballerini honored victims of the Nashville, Tennessee, Covenant School shooting at the start of the 2023 CMT Awards on Sunday, April 2.

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton showed off how to successfully pull off coordinating looks at the 2023 CMT Music Awards held at Moody Center on Sunday (April 2) in Austin, Texas.

Kane Brown and his wife Katelyn Brown share a kiss on the red carpet at the 2023 CMT Music Awards held at Moody Center on Sunday (April 2) in Austin, Texas.

Body-ody-ody! Megan Thee Stallion had all eyes on her at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. 

A major milestone! Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes were all smiles during their red carpet debut at the 2023 CMT Music Awards on Sunday, April 2.