Taylor Swift Returns to the CMA Stage After 13 Years

By Grace Kim

Taylor Swift will perform at the 60th annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards on Wednesday, ending a 13-year gap since her last CMA performance, ABC and the Country Music Association announced Friday morning.

Swift had already publicly said she would attend after receiving a CMA nomination this year. Friday’s announcement added the missing detail: her appearance will include music, not just an audience seat.

ABC and the CMA did not identify a setlist (the confirmed list of songs). “I Knew It, I Knew You,” her contribution to the Disney/Pixar film “Toy Story 5,” is the strongest candidate because it earned a CMA nomination this year.

The song is therefore the obvious candidate, and a good bet for at least part of her set. That remains a prediction, not a confirmed program.

A return built on two earlier appearances

Her previous CMA performance came in 2013, when she received the Pinnacle Award and sang “Red” with Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. Her last appearance of any kind came in 2016, when she surprised the audience in the show’s final minutes to present the Entertainer of the Year award to Garth Brooks.

Two decades of country awards history

Friday’s announcement also placed the booking within a longer history. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Swift’s first CMA appearance, shortly after the release of her self-titled debut album.

She won the Horizon Award in 2007, the CMA’s choice for the best new artist. In 2009, she became the youngest artist ever to win the Entertainer of the Year award, the show’s top prize.

Her 2015 album “1989” marked a declared choice between pop and country, and pop won out. Swift did not, however, sever her ties to the country community.

Country experiments continued through the album track “Betty” and the vault track (a previously unreleased recording) “I Bet You Think About Me,” a duet with Chris Stapleton. “I Knew It, I Knew You” then became her first brand-new song in more than a decade marketed as country, and it reached No. 1 at country radio.

What does this change for the broadcast?

For CMA viewers, one fact now matters: Swift will perform, but her songs remain unannounced. The booking converts an attendance announcement into a confirmed musical appearance while leaving the artistic choices open.

The show airs from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+. Hulu will carry it the next day.

A broad field of announced performers

The Lainey Wilson-hosted 60th annual CMA Awards already includes a wide range of performers. Leading nominee Ella Langley is among them, alongside:

• Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Kacey Musgraves, The Red Clay Strays and Zach Top.
• Tucker Wetmore, Luke Combs, Vince Gill, Megan Moroney, Mumford & Sons, Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson and Stephen Wilson Jr.

Brothers Osborne, Luke Bryan, Halestorm, Hardy and Marcus King will take part in a tribute to Brooks & Dunn. A salute to Dolly Parton is also planned.

The song’s wider awards push

Beyond Swift’s CMA nomination, “I Knew It, I Knew You” faces an awards campaign (an effort to secure nominations and wins across categories) for the Oscar for best original song. Co-written with Jack Antonoff, it was also submitted for the Grammy Awards’ song of the year category.

The performance will show how Swift balances her pop career with country radio credibility, a balance she first declared in 2015 with “1989.” The confirmed booking gives the 60th annual CMAs a focal point, even if the unannounced setlist leaves the terms of that return open.