The 57th Annual CMA Awards are off and running and so far, I have to say it hasn’t been horrible.
Jelly Roll opened the show with Wynonna Judd, performing his latest single “Need A Favor” and while Jelly sounded great, people immediately began expressing concern for Wynonna, who appeared to be unable to move and held onto Jelly Roll’s arm for nearly the entire performance.
The show continued in typical fashion, with hosts Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning trading a few jokes (Peyton’s were clearly better) and some award winners being announced, the first two being Single and Song of the Year.
Both were won by Luke Combs’ rendition of the 1988 Tracy Chapman classic “Fast Car”, which was included on his Gettin’ Old album, and wound up charting higher than the original on the Billboard 200.
Obviously, that’s a huge moment for Luke and Tracy, and a great song and performance, but it does raise the question of how exactly a non-country song written in 1988 is the best country song in the world today.
To say some fans are less than pleased is an understatement…
In all fairness, Tracy Chapman was the actual winner of the Song of the Year award for actually writing it, and I do understand why people would be upset that a cover won the CMA over original tunes, but it’s far from the first time an artist has won an award for a cover song and let’s be honest, his version rocks…
What do you think? Should “Fast Car” have won both awards?
