Lainey Wilson’s CMA Performance Will Go ‘Back To My Roots’

Lainey Wilson was announced a few weeks back as a performer on Wednesday night's (11/8) CMA Awards  in Nashville, where she is nominated for nine awards, including the coveted Entertainer of the Year award.

We talked to Lainey the day the CMA performances were announced (10/25). She told us, "I want to make sure that every televised performance I do shows a different side of me. I don't want it to be the same old thing every time because the truth is if you do come to a live show, I do have a lot of different sides. I'll be up there playing acoustic one, and then I'll be out there doing a stanky leg on the next one; you know what I'm saying? That's just how we do it."

Wilson added that the song she will sing, "Wildflowers and Wild Horses," is autobiographical. She told us, "This one definitely shows that Western side; it takes me back to my childhood. It takes me back to my roots. I come from a long line of hard-headed, tough people and people who have blazed their own trails. I'm from five generations of farmers in Northeast Louisiana, and I always compare farming to the music business. I mean, we get up every day to do the same thing. We have good years, we have bad years, but you just keep on blazing that trail. So, I think it's digging a little deeper into my story."

Lainey is trying to wrap her head around being in the coveted Entertainer of the Year category. at the CMA's on Wednesday (11/8), "To be considered for Entertainer of the Year, it's like, 'Oh my gosh, how did that happen?' But when you think about the amount of shows that we have played this year and last year, we have played a lot. We started playing a club tour at the top of the year. We went out with Luke Combs and did a stadium tour. And we are out on the road with HARDY right now. Every fair and festival in between, we have done it, so with the amount of people we have entertained, then I guess it's not that crazy."

The 57th Annual CMA Awards will be handed out Wednesday (11/8), live on ABC.

Lainey Wilson topped the 2023 CMA nominations in early September with this year's nominee list for the show, which will take place on November 8 in Nashville. She scored nine nods in total, including the top nomination for Entertainer of the Year. She is nominated in the latter category against Carrie Underwood, Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, and Chris Stapleton.

Lainey's other nominations include being nominated twice in the Musical Event category, once with HARDY for "Wait in The Truck" and the second nod with Jelly Roll for "Save Me." She is also nominated for Album of the Year for Bell Bottom Country (an award she won from the ACMs in May) and her second nomination for CMA Female Vocalist of the Year. She won the honor at last year's (2022) CMA Awards in Nashville.

Wilson was nominated twice for Single and Song of the Year for her song "Heart Like A Truck" and for her duet with HARDY, "Wait In The Truck." Her ninth nomination is for Video of the Year for "Wait In The Truck."

Lainey posted a lengthy post to her fans on Instagram when the nominations came out (9/7). She wrote at the time, "Holy moly, y'all. Someone pinch me. I can't believe my eyes. I'm so proud of everything we've done this year for my own music and these collabs with my brothers @hardy and @jellyroll615. Thank y'all for having me on these songs."

She continued, "Being nominated in each of these categories amongst my friends means the world to me. And the coveted Entertainer Of The Year category?! It's absolutely surreal. We bust our butts out there on the road every dang night to give y'all the best show possible, and I have the time of my life doing it."

Wilson closed with, "All I gotta say is thank y'all. I love country music."

As we look at and ponder her many nominations, we speculate a bit about what five awards she will likely take home on CMA Awards night (11/8).

This is an award she won in 2022 from the CMA, and in this category, the CMA often repeats if a particular star has had such a good year as Lainey has. Let's not forget Miranda Lambert took this award home seven times. Reba McEntire won the honor four times in the 1980s and 1990s. It feels like Wilson is a shoo-in for this win.

Having won the Academy of Country Music's 2022 award for Album of the Year, Lainey can also win this from the CMA. The album was one of the year's biggest and has spawned two number-one songs, including "Heart Like A Truck" and "Watermelon Moonshine." She told us when the album was released, "Sure, I love a good pair of bell bottoms, but Bell Bottom Country to me has always been about the flare and what makes someone unique—I have really embraced mine, and I hope y'all can hear that across this project."

This epic video has already won Collaborative Music Video of the Year at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. It also won the Visual Media Award (basically Video of the Year) at the 2022 ACM Awards in May. With its hard-core storyline and great acting from both HARDY and Lainey, it would be wrong if it did not win Video of the Year from the CMA.

Jelly Roll and Lainey are both so very hot in country music right now, so a win here would be no surprise at all. Also, the song is solid and a fan favorite for sure. Even though Wilson is nominated against herself in this category with the Musical Event with HARDY and "Wait In The Truck," there is a good chance her collaboration with Jelly will be the winner.

Yep, I said it. Lainey should take the biggest award of the evening and the most coveted honor of Entertainer of the Year. Let's be honest: she dominated country music in 2023 with several tours, big hit songs, and many other awards from other award shows. It always seems a little soon for someone like Wilson, whose rise in country music seemed to happen so quickly, to win this one. However, she really deserves this one, and I would be surprised if she didn't take it home on CMA Award show night.