Music Legends Set for Major CMT Special

CMT has set its next big TV special, following major events like the CMT Music Awards and 2022’s Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Celebration of the Life and Music of Loretta Lynn. Per a press release, the Paramount-owned TV network will air CMT Smashing Glass: A Celebration of the Groundbreaking Women of Music on Nov. 15 at 9 p.m. ET. This event will honor legendary women in music, including two legends who will be on hand for the festivities: Patti LaBelle and Tanya Tucker.

“Lady Marmalade” singer LaBelle and “Delta Dawn” singer Tucker will be the first two honorees for Smashing Glass, with friends and fellow performers honoring them throughout the broadcast. Each legend will also perform during the special, as well. CMT has not made the list of performers and special guests public as of press time, but expect some of country and R&B’s best talents to show love to Tucker and LaBelle.

“We’re beyond excited to bring this electrifying and empowering new franchise to life by honoring iconic women who’ve fearlessly ‘smashed glass ceilings’ and kicked in doors, holding them wide open for past, present and future generations,” said Margaret Comeaux, CMT’s Senior Vice President of Production, Music & Events and Executive Producer. “Both Patti and Tanya deserve to be celebrated for continuing to set the industry gold standard with boundary-breaking crossover success, bold, uncompromising lives and careers, and creating timeless music and impact that remains as powerful and relevant as ever.”

Guest performers will also honor three female icons who are no longer with us. Aretha Franklin, Sinead O’Connor and Tina Turner — the latter two of which passed away just earlier this year — are all set to be honored during the Smashing Glass broadcast.

Smashing Glass Executive Producer Patrizia DiMaria says, “Inspired by so many other women who have smashed glass ceilings before us, we’ll also pay homage to three other female juggernauts with in-show ‘Moments of Respect,’ nodding to Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul who forever altered the path for women with her legacy of demanding ‘R.E.S.P.E.C.T,’ the ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner, who empowered the world with her resilience, and Sinead O’Connor, who broke the traditional ‘pop star’ mold and used her life and music to illuminate the world’s burning issues.”

Leslie Fram, CMT’s SVP of Music & Talent and Executive in Charge of Talent, noted that Smashing Glass is just the latest in a long line of female-focused programming that CMT has been behind in 2023. “CMT SMASHING GLASS is a grand finale to a landmark 2023 which we dedicated as our ‘Year of the Woman,’” Fram said. “Kicking off in January with a milestone 10th anniversary of the Next Women of Country (NWOC) franchise, we celebrated female voices across all programming and events – from our women-led headliners at CMT MUSIC AWARDS and ‘Equal Play’ honoree Shania Twain, to bi-monthly NWOC artist showcases and the greenlight of our CMT DEFINING series, we remain dedicated to ‘Equal Play’ and advocating for the trailblazers of the past, superstars of the present and the future voices in our format.” 

Production credits for CMT Smashing Glass: A Celebration of the Groundbreaking Women of Music include:

• Executive Producers: CMT’s Margaret Comeaux and 21st Floor Productions’ Patrizia DiMaria, Michelle Mahoney and Lauren Quinn
• Director: Lauren Quinn
• Executives in Charge of Production: Jackie Barba and Heather D. Graffagnino
• Executive in Charge of Talent: Leslie Fram 
• Talent Producer: Suzanne Bender

More details on Smashing Glass are expected in the coming weeks. The broadcast, filmed at Belmont University’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Nashville, will air on Nov. 15 at 9 p.m. ET. No word on if it will stream on Paramount+ after airing.