CMT Awards, or CMT Music Awards, is a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances. The purpose of these awards is to appreciate the efforts of artists but from the point of view of fans. CMT Awards 2023 has sparked some controversies, and the award show was hosted by Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown. The award ceremony took place on April 3.
Apart from recognizing artists and their work, a lot happened at the award ceremony. From Gwen Stefani getting trolled for his outfit, which according to many, looked like nothing but a costume, to drag queens attending the show. The night was quite adventurous. Tomi Lahren also lashed out on the show. These were just a glimpse of what happened that night. We will be getting the details shortly, but it can be said that Texas wanted that to be a controversial event.
For the past few years, the CMT Award night has been hosted by Kelsea Ballerini, but in 2023 she decided to do it in a different way. What happened? We will be digging into it later. CMT Awards 2023 night turned out to be awful, the event was attended by many and many mishaps happened at the event. Certain events didn’t turn out quite appealing and became the root cause of sparking controversies. Read the following sections if you are curious to know what exactly happened there.
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CMT Awards 2023 Controversy, What Exactly Happened?
There’s no doubt that that specific night was quite eventful. Many things happened that left people in a shocking state and gave a rose to controversies that set the internet on fire.
The highlight of that night was Kelsea Ballerini’s performance with drag queens. RuPaul’s Drag Race was seen making an appearance with Kelsea Ballerini. Anti-drag legislation was the main reason for this particular controversy. Anti-drag bill was passed by Governor Bill Lee on March 2, 2023. Kelsea was called a “woke traitor of the genre,” and she thanked them for celebrating love and self-expression, and performance.
Drag Queens Manila Luzon and Jan Sport and Kennedy Davenport, and Olivia Lux made their appearance on the red carpet on April 3, 2023. Tomi Lahren was not impressed with what happened at the performance, and she was disappointed with their appearance at the awards ceremony. She expressed her disappointment through her Twitter handle. She tweeted and asked whether everything has to be a platform to show the rainbow mafia down our throats.
At the opening of the night, a Tennessee native talked about the Nashville school shooting, which encouraged Tomi Lahren and Kelsea also make a Twitter post using the #GoWokeGoBroke hashtag.
Setting all the controversies which the night sparked aside, the event in itself was successful. There’s an increase of 5% in viewership. 5.43 million people watched the awards ceremony on CBS and Paramount +.
Moving on with the article, next we are going to talk about Gwen Stefani or, to be more precise, her outfit that she wore at night. Gwen was accompanied by her husband, Blake Shelton. Her outfit on the red carpet was controversial. She came wearing a black blazer which was accompanied by a long skinny tie and a white shirt with a short gold beaded miniskirt. She finished her look with fishnet tights and knee-high furry boots. The singer looked like she was ready for a runway.
There were mixed reactions regarding her outfit. Some liked it, whereas some criticized her dressing style. Some even commented that those were 2010 fashion and those boots are no longer in trend. Valentino Haute Couture outfit started this trend in 2010. What are your opinions on her outfit for the night?
Jelly Roll’s Son of a Sinner won the award in the Breakthrough Male Video category, whereas Lainey Wilson won the award in the Female Video category for Heart Like A Truck. Jelly Roll also won the award in the Male Video of the Year category for Son of a Sinner and another award in the Digital First Performance category for the same song. Besides him, other winners were HARDY, Megan Moroney, Zac Brown Band, Kane Brown, and Katelyn Brown. Cody Johnson won the award for CMT Performance, and he performed on Til You Can’t at the 2022 CMT Music Awards.