The genre’s latest superstar twirled and spun her way through the floor of the Moody Center in Austin
Lainey Wilson delivered a fun and easygoing rendition of her recent single “Country’s Cool Again” at the 2024 CMT Awards this Sunday.
Dressed in fringe pants and a matching vest, and with her hair in long braids beneath her cowboy hat, Wilson twirled and spun her way through the audience, exuding the charisma that helped her win Entertainer of the Year at the 2023 CMA Awards. It was an especially soulful performance, with elements of the country-funk that defined her latest album, Bell Bottom Country.
Along with performing, Wilson picked up three CMT Awards nominations this year, including Female Video of the Year for “Watermelon Moonshine” and Collaborative Video of the Year for “More Than Friends” with Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real. “Watermelon Moonshine” was also nominated for Video of the Year, and made it through two rounds of fan voting to land among the three finalists for the big prize.
Wilson released “Country’s Cool Again” back in February, not long after Bell Bottom Country won Best Country Album at the Grammys. She wrote the song with frequent collaborators Trannie Anderson and Dallas Wilson, and her band leader, guitarist Aslan Freeman.
Following the CMT Awards, Wilson will make a quick stop in Florence, Arizona, for a show before heading overseas to play a bunch of concerts in Europe and the U.K. After that, she’ll spend much of the spring and fall performing a mix of headlining shows and festival dates across North America, with dates scheduled all the way through November. On Nov. 16, she’ll close out the run with a homecoming(ish) show in Monroe, Louisiana (she technically grew up in the small town of Baskin, about 30 minutes away).