The DM Zone with Host Dianemarie (DM) Collins was fortunate to cover the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards, commonly known as CMA 50 or the 50th CMA Awards, were held on November 2, 2016 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The ceremony recognizes some of the best country music released during the eligibility period (between July 1, 2015 and July 20, 2016). It is the eleventh ceremony to be held at the Arena, the seventeenth to be held in November and the ninth night to be co-hosted by country stars Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. The ceremony was directed by Paul Miller.
As it was the 50th anniversary of the awards, the Country Music Association ran an extensive promotional campaign and CMA Executive Produced Robert Deaton stated that the aim of the ceremony was to include a lot of “heritage artists” and honor the history of country music, stressing that there would be less of a focus on artists promoting their current singles as is usually the case so that greater time could be spent including “exciting throwbacks”.
About Kelsea Ballarini
Kelsea Nicole Ballerini (born September 12, 1993) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She released her first album The First Time in 2015, and her second album Unapologetically was released on November 3, 2017. She received a nomination for Best New Artist at the 2017 Grammy Awards. Ballerini’s two albums have accounted for seven charted songs on the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. She has four No. 1 singles on the latter, starting with her debut single “Love Me Like You Mean It”, which made her the first female artist to send a debut single to the top of that chart since Carrie Underwood in 2006. It was followed by “Dibs” and “Peter Pan”, whose peaks also made her the first female country artist to send her first three singles to the top of that chart since Wynonna Judd. Ballerini’s fourth No. 1 single is “Legends”.
