Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic
Taylor Swift will perform on the CMA Awards Wednesday for the first time in 13 years, ABC and the Country Music Association announced Friday morning.
Swift had already publicly declared, upon getting a CMA nomination this year, that she would attend the show, but there was no indication until now on how or whether she intended on participating in the show beyond being an audience member.
No information was given about what Swift will perform on the show, although it’s a good bet it will consist partly or wholly of her nominated song, “I Knew it, I Knew You,” her contribution to the Disney/Pixar film “Toy Story 5.”
Her previous appearance on the show came in 2013, when she received the Pinnacle Award and performed the song “Red” with Vince Gill and Alison Krauss.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of her first appearance at the CMA Awards, shortly after the release of her self-titled debut album. Her first win came in 2007, when she won the Horizon Award as the CMA’s choice for the best new artist. In 2009, she became the youngest artist ever to win the top prize at the awards, Entertainer of the Year.
With the release of “1989” in 2015, Swift declared she was picking a lane between pop and country, and pop had won out, although she did not burn any bridges with the country community.
The release of “I Knew It, I Knew You” marked her first brand new song in more than a decade to be marketed as a country song — and to make it to No. 1 at country radio format — although she had dabbled in the genre in the intervening years with album tracks like “Betty” and a vault track duet with Chris Stapleton, “I Bet You Think About Me.”
The show airs from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday from 8-11 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+, with next-day streaming availability on Hulu.
Beyond her picking up a nomination for a CMA Award for “I Knew It, I Knew You,” the song — co-written by Jack Antonoff — is also being campaigned for an Oscar for best original song, and was submitted in the category of song of the year for the Grammy Awards.
