“Country Music’s Biggest Night” is working with mainstream pop this year. On November 5^th, Ariana Grande will perform a duet with Little Big Town during the CMA Awards. I consider myself “in the know” when it comes to the music industry, but it doesn’t take a forensics team to conclude that Grande doesn’t really fit in with the country music crowd. Her Wikipedia page considers her a representative of EDM and electropop, and her selection as a performer for the CMA Awards confuses me.

Don’t get me wrong; I love all kinds of music. My Itunes library consists of anything from N.W.A to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana to Eric Church, Ziggy Marley to…you get the idea. I am all for musicians on opposite ends of the spectrum collaborating together to make a song or maybe even an album, but to have this performance on this night seems weird. The CMA Awards is considered “Country Music’s Biggest Night.” Why are you having someone who hasn’t earned their place in the country music industry performing on its “biggest night?”

If I was a country artist that wanted to perform at the CMA Awards, and an artist who is in a completely different category ousted me I would be pissed! I am trying to picture George Strait and Willie Nelson looking perplexed as this performance would unfold and I cant help but laugh. This situation is almost similar to Taylor Swift coming out as a “pop artist” after her start as a self identified “country artist.” Now I am struggling to figure out what is and isn’t country.

We all know that rock, bluegrass, and jazz have an influence in country. Pop has had an influence as well, but it has always been one of those genres that never made sense to me. Country was around for a long time before people started making techno sounds on a computer, and to have Grande waltz right in and perform seems like an odd mix. My only explanation: TV ratings and money.

If an Ariana Grande fan hears about her performing at the CMA Awards, he or she might watch an awards show that they previously wouldn’t have. Multiply that by the millions of people who have bought her records and it could make a big difference in the ratings. After the announcement of this surprising performance, TV Networks might get in a more intense bidding war for the rights to cover the future CMA Awards. In the end, CMA wins.

I am not trying to slam Grande’s music in any way, I mean, her record sales speak for themselves. I don’t think it makes a ton of sense to have the most important night in country music be shared with an artist that represents a completely different genre. In my opinion, they might as well get Waka Flocka in the mix.

Well, its that time of the year again! The biggest night in country music is coming up next week, the CMA awards. It airs next Wednesday on Nov 5^th at 7 PM, I sure hope anybody who’s enrolled in this class watches to see who takes home what awards this year and with Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley as the hosts, its sure to be a fun, musical night. Since I love country music so much I’m going to breakdown the nominations in a couple different categories and make my picks, hopefully as accurately as possible! Now I will point out that along with my own opinion I did do some research to decide my choices so let’s see how many I can get right this year!

Album of the Year: I believe Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party will take the prize this year. This album sold over 2 million copies and won Billboard Music Award’s Country Album of the year title earlier this year. I feel like we’ve seen Luke Bryan only grow since 2009 when he released his first big single “Do I”. Crash My Party released six singles all of which were widely successful.

Entertainer of the Year: KING GEORGE! What more do I have to say? Honestly I believe it would be a complete injustice if Strait didn’t win this award this year. For his “Cowboy Rides Away Tour” he pulled out all the stops bringing in tons of different artists for his farewell tour to enhance the fan experience. He HAS TO and WILL win. It’s also worth noting that he took this category in this years ACM awards also.

New Artist of the Year: This one is going completely off whom my favorite is and it’s a toss up between Cole Swindell and Thomas Rhett. I think Rhett may have the edge over Swindell because Swindell has just recently gotten hot with 3 singles released; where as Rhett has been around a little longer and has released 5 in the last 3 years and his “It Goes like This” and “Get Me Some of That” were really hot in 2013. Although, I personally like Cole Swindell’s voice the best!

Song of the Year: I believe “I Don’t Dance” by Lee Brice will take the cake on this one. This song sold 1,028,000 copies in the US. This song pulled the emotions of all the country listening women in America when we found out Brice wrote it for his then fiancé to be performed during their first dance. This song hit the tops of the Billboard country charts and had a lot of radio airplay (still does). But I must mention that this song is in good competitive company with “I Hold On”, “Follow Your Arrow” and “Automatic” in the mix!

Vocal Duo of the Year: Anybody who thinks anyone besides Florida Georgia Line will win this award must be out of his or her mind! Of the nominees, if I could put money on FGL winning (don’t worry I cant really, NCAA rules) I would put it all on them. Last year they won this exact award from CMA and they for sure did not disappoint us with their music since! (They also won top duo in this years ACM awards in April) “This is How We Roll” and “Dirt” have been their most popular singles this year, both becoming at least platinum certified singles.

So what do you think? What and who will be remembered at this year’s CMA awards?