Three Generations Of Country Women Came Together To Create One Of The CMA Awards’ Most Memorable Opening Moments
On 13 November 2019, the 53rd Annual CMA Awards turned Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena into a celebration of the women who had helped shape country music across generations. Hosted by Carrie Underwood, with Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton serving as special guest hosts, the ceremony was deliberately built around the legacy and influence of women in country music. The choice of these three women was significant in itself. Together, they represented different eras of the genre, different musical personalities and three extraordinary careers that had already become part of country music history. The Country Music Association noted that the three hosts collectively held 124 CMA Award nominations and 22 wins, including 11 Female Vocalist of the Year victories.
The opening number immediately made clear that this would not be an ordinary awards show. Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton led a remarkable gathering of female country artists through a decades spanning medley of songs that celebrated the women who had paved the way. They were joined by Terri Clark, Sara Evans, Crystal Gayle, Martina McBride, Jennifer Nettles, Tanya Tucker, Gretchen Wilson and members of The Highwomen, including Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires. The performance brought together artists from several generations on one stage, allowing songs from different periods of country music to flow into one another. It was less like a conventional awards show opener and more like a living history of the genre.
For Dolly Parton, the evening carried particular significance. By 2019, she was no longer simply being celebrated for the extraordinary number of songs she had written or the countless records she had made. She had become one of the central figures through whom the history of country music could be understood. Her appearance alongside Carrie and Reba created a striking generational bridge. Dolly represented the generation that had opened doors for women in Nashville, Reba represented the superstar generation that followed, and Carrie represented a newer era of country stardom. The CMA had specifically designed the ceremony to celebrate legendary women in the genre, and putting these three artists at the center made that idea immediately visible.
Reba McEntire also had a special place in the ceremony because her career had already intersected with CMA history for decades. She had won Entertainer of the Year in 1986, while Dolly had received the same honor in 1978. Carrie Underwood, meanwhile, had accumulated seven CMA Awards before the 2019 ceremony and had already become one of the most recognizable voices of her generation. The CMA pointed out that Underwood had been co hosting the awards since 2008, making the 2019 appearance another chapter in a hosting relationship that had become part of the modern CMA tradition.
The night also gave each of the three women moments away from the hosting desk. Reba performed “Fancy,” bringing back one of the most recognizable songs of her career with the confidence and dramatic flair that had always made the performance so memorable. Carrie Underwood performed her single “Drinking Alone,” while Dolly appeared in several collaborations, including performances with for KING & COUNTRY and Zach Williams. Dolly’s presence throughout the ceremony reinforced the central theme of the night: country music was not simply a collection of current hits, but a long conversation between artists who came before and those carrying the tradition forward.
What made the 2019 CMA Awards particularly memorable was the way the ceremony allowed those generations to stand beside one another without treating the past as something finished. Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood were not simply three famous women chosen to host an awards show. Each had already left a distinct mark on country music, and seeing them together gave the evening a sense of continuity that awards ceremonies do not always achieve. Dolly brought the history of country songwriting and performance, Reba brought the commanding presence of a country superstar who had dominated the charts and stages for decades, and Carrie brought the perspective of an artist who had become one of the genre’s defining voices of the 21st century.
There was also something deeply moving about the sheer number of women surrounding them during the opening performance. Artists such as Crystal Gayle, Tanya Tucker, Martina McBride, Sara Evans, Terri Clark and Gretchen Wilson represented different chapters of country music, while The Highwomen brought another generation into the picture. Rather than presenting one narrow definition of what country music could be, the performance allowed all these voices to coexist. The CMA itself described it as a monumental decades spanning medley of iconic country songs.
Looking back, the 2019 CMA Awards remain especially striking because the ceremony understood that country music is built not only on individual stars, but also on musical inheritance. Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton stood at the center of that idea, surrounded by women whose careers had helped shape the sound, identity and history of the genre. The cameras captured an awards show, but the stage held something larger: three generations of country women sharing the same spotlight, with the songs of the past meeting the voices of the present. It was one of those rare television moments where the significance of the gathering was already visible before the final note had even faded.