Carrie Underwood has arrived at the Bridgestone Arena! The “Cry Pretty” singer changed out of her shredded denim from CMA Awards rehearsal and into a spunky, sparkling gown ahead of her highly-anticipated performance with Jason Aldean. Carrie’s dress gave off serious rock & roll vibes with its spiky, long sleeve one shoulder look that went into streaks of metallic feathers. The high slit showed off the country star’s iconic, killer legs and enviable figure! She was joined by her husband Mike Fisher, who has recently caught flack for supporting Aaron Rodgers amid his controversial comments on the COVID-19 vaccine.
Tonight, Carrie is nominated for Entertainer of the Year, but, for the first time since 2006, she is not included in the CMA Awards’ Female Vocalist of the Year category. This year’s nominees include Gabby Barrett, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde, Maren Morris and Carly Pearce. Carrie has taken home the top female prize five times in her 15 years of being nominated and fans were not pleased that she was left out of the category this year.
“Carrie Underwood should have been in there too!” one person wrote. “Carrie’s been singing better this last year than her entire career. While all these women are very talented, Carrie could out-sing any female country artist literally anytime,” said another. One person on Twitter even went as for to say that the organization should be “ashamed” of themselves.
Still, fans got to see Carrie’s epic performance with Jason Aldean, which they teased in rehearsal pics ahead of the big show. The singer and Jason performed their duet “If I Didn’t Love You” live together for the first time and knocked it out of the part. Carrie arrived on stage donning a full tulle gown with a black corset and layered black pearls around her neck and chest. “We faked it about a hundred times for the video, but that’s been about it so far,” Jason told Country Now about getting to perform the song live together. “So, to get to do it live for the first time at the CMAs… So excited.”
When it came to working together, Jason broke down how he and Carrie collaborated for this hit single. “Carrie’s somebody I wanted to work with for a long time, and it’s just hard when you want to do that, but you don’t have the song,” he admitted to the outlet. “I feel like you’re kind of chasing the song a lot of times and so, some of the guys in my band and a new artist that I’m working with, John Morgan, went in and wanted to try to write a duet and came out with this song…it was just one of those songs when I heard it for the first time that she was the first person that I thought of.”