Carrie Underwood Teases 'Big, Monster Open' for 2019 CMA Awards on 'Live With Kelly and Ryan'

Carrie Underwood is hosting the 2019 Country Music Association Awards for the 12th straight year, [...]

By Hannah Barnes

Carrie Underwood is hosting the 2019 Country Music Association Awards for the 12th straight year, and this time around, she has some new faces by her side. Underwood will be hosting the show with Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire, all of whom are teaming up with several other notable women in country music for the ceremony's opening number.

Underwood served as a guest host on Live With Kelly and Ryan on Friday, Nov. 8, where she offered up a few details on the performance, which will also include Terri Clark, Sara Evans, Crystal Gayle, The Highwomen, Martina McBride, Jennifer Nettles, Tanya Tucker and Gretchen Wilson.

"We are having this big, monster open," Underwood said. "Dolly, Reba and myself kind of have the first song in our open, but there's a lot of faces that people are just excited to see on the show. A lot of strong, incredible women in country music that I've loved forever and just glad I'm going to get to be in the same room with them."

When Seacrest asked Underwood how many different voices would be performing with her, she joked somewhere between five and 25.

Ahead of her guest hosting stint on Friday's episode, Underwood visited Good Morning America, where she shared additional details of Wednesday's ceremony. "I feel like the whole tone of the night is just going to be very heartfelt and sincere," she said. "Of course we're going to have fun moments because it's me and Dolly and Reba, but it's a tribute to legends — women of country music, the now, current people and we're looking to the future, too."

Along with hosting and performing, Underwood is nominated for three CMA Awards — Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year for Cry Pretty and Entertainer of the Year. She is the only female to be nominated for Entertainer of the Year, an honor both of her co-hosts have won in the past.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want it or it's an honor to be nominated," Underwood told Pollstar. "I'm competitive and committed to what we do. But you know that award is about so much more than me. It's about my team, all the people who work so hard with me – from the label to the road people, the musicians, the songwriters, my management, even the fans because it's their award, too. I see the fans coming to multiple shows, calling the radio stations, trying to find the music."

"I could say, 'I'm just doing this for the fans,' because there's a lot of truth in that," she continued. "And I'd rather be the person who doesn't win, but should. But I look at the things that go into it: performances, album, tour, vocals, the songs. I want to be the person who truly excels at all those things."

The 2019 CMA Awards air live from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo Credit: Duane Prokop/Getty Images for CMT/Viacom

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