Hosted by Kelsea Ballerini, the 2024 CMT Music Awards aired live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas on Sunday, April 7, and it looks like “Halfway To Hell” singer Jelly Roll was the star of the show, taking home the most awards of the evening with three: Video of the Year, Male Video of the Year and CMT Performance of the Year, all for his “Need A Favor” music video.
Jelly Roll Wins Three Awards
Jelly Roll — along with Lainey Wilson, Cody Johnson, Kelsea Ballerini and Megan Moroney — led the nominations for the 2024 CMT Music Awards, with the Antioch, Tennessee native becoming the only one of these artists to emerge as victorious in all three categories that he was nominated for.
While all three CMT Awards were quite the feat, the most prestigious category of the evening was Video of the Year, with its 16 nominees being narrowed down to just three ahead of the fan-voted award show: Jelly Roll’s “Need A Favor,” Cody Johnson’s “The Painter” and Kelsea Ballerini’s “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too).” Beating out the latter two in this category, Jelly Roll secured his first ever Video of the Year win, but he is no stranger to taking home a throng of CMT Awards.
Taking home three trophies at the 2023 CMT Music Awards — Male Video of the Year, Male Breakthrough Video of the Year and CMT Digital-First Performance of the Year, all for “Son of a Sinner” — Jelly Roll became the winningest artist of the evening, and it looks like history repeated itself tonight.
To top it off, with his Male Video of the Year win, Jelly Roll became the first artist to win back-to-back in that category specifically since Blake Shelton won in 2013 and 2014 for “Sure Be Cool If You Did” and “Doin’ What She Likes,” respectively.
Jelly Roll Gives Bunnie XO, Cody Johnson and Kelsea Ballerini Shoutouts
Upon accepting his third award of the evening — which doubled as his biggest award of the evening — Jelly Roll gave a shoutout to the other two artists that were nominated: Cody Johnson and Kelsea Ballerini.
“Man, Cody Johnson. You are my favorite cowboy, forever and ever and ever. Kelsea Ballerini, you know what I think of you too. You go, baby,” he gushed with a grin.
After rattling off some more people who helped him achieve such success within the country music industry, he finally addressed his wife, social media sensation and Dumb Blonde Podcast host, Bunnie XO. “My beautiful wife, Miss Bunnie DeFord. I am blessed to have you as a best friend. I am blessed to have you as a partner. You find beauty in broken things, and I love you,” he said while choking back tears.
Promising to party in Austin, Texas tonight, it is clear that the country crooner has a lot to celebrate after such a successful evening.
Earlier in the evening, he graciously thanked his fans for their endless support.
“This is a moment I want to take to thank the fans for everything they have done for me,” he said. “I want to thank God, I want to thank my beautiful wife and my daughter at home. One year ago, I was invited to perform at my first award show, and I walked on this stage and I sang ‘Need A Favor’ for the first time on national television right here. What I’m emotional about is in that last year, you have changed my life in every way. I would’ve never thought my life could be changed.”
He also called the evening, “one of the greatest nights of my life.”
Closes the show with an electric performance of “Halfway to Heaven”
Just seconds after accepting the CMT Award for Video of the Year, Jelly Roll took the stage to perform “Halfway to Heaven” to close out the three-hour telecast. Packed with pyrotechnics, the performance was just as spectacular as one would imagine, serving as the perfect set to close out the 2024 CMT Music Awards.
2024 CMT Music Awards
The 2024 CMT Music Awards also featured performances by Jelly Roll, Bailey Zimmerman, Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson, Sam Hunt, Cody Johnson, Dasha, Jason Aldean, Kelsea Ballerini, Megan Moroney, Trisha Yearwood and more.
The fan-voted award show included a star-studded list of one-of-a-kind collaborations and memorable moments. Parker McCollum teamed up with Brittney Spencer to perform “Burn It Down,” while Old Dominion and Megan Moroney joined forces to deliver a performance of their fan-favorite duet, “Can’t Break Up Now.”
Meanwhile, NEEDTOBREATHE and Jordan Davis gave fans a taste of what’s to come on their episode of CMT Crossroads, and Sugarland reunited to premiere a brand-new collaboration with Little Big Town, marking the duo’s return to the CMT Music Awards and their first time performing together on the show since 2011.
The three-hour broadcast also honored late country music icon Toby Keith, with an emotional tribute performance from Brooks & Dunn, Lainey Wilson, Sammy Hagar, all backed by Keith’s longtime band. Lukas Nelson and Rogers Clemens also made special appearances during the tribute.
With performances aside, Jelly Roll, Megan Moroney, Amber Riley, Billy Bob Thornton (Landman), Carly Pearce, Cody Alan, Cody Johnson, Emily Osment (Young Sheldon), Emma Roberts, Gayle King (CBS Mornings), James Van Der Beek, Jane Seymour, Jelly Roll, Max Theriot (Fire Country), Melissa Etheridge, Mickey Guyton, Minnie Driver, Montana Jordan (Young Sheldon), Parmalee and Paul Walter Hauser served as presenters during the coveted award show.
The 2024 CMT Music Awards aired live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas on Sunday, April 7 at 8/7 CT on CBS. The show is also available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
