Key Takeaways:

• BigXthaPlug will carry out “Pray Hard” with Luke Combs on the 2025 CMA Awards.
• Shaboozey is nominated for New Artist of the Year and can carry out “Took a Walk” with Stephen Wilson Jr.
• The 2025 CMA lineup displays a rising development of genre-blending performances and broader cultural inclusion.

The 2025 CMA Awards already look promising based mostly on the efficiency lineup. On Thursday (Nov. 6), organizers introduced that Shaboozey and BigXthaPlug will take the stage at this 12 months’s occasion, alongside main nominees Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney, and Ella Langley.

Set to air stay Nov. 19 from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on ABC, the ceremony will see BigX crew up with Luke Combs for a stay rendition of “Pray Hard.” The track initially appeared on August’s I Hope You’re Happy. Unfortunately, the Dallas rapper isn’t vying for any awards, however maybe he’ll have higher luck on the 2026 Grammy Awards in February.

Shaboozey, alternatively, is competing for New Artist of the Year. He’s up towards Langley, Zach Top, Tucker Wetmore, and Stephen Wilson Jr. Hopefully, he’ll fare higher this time round after shedding to Moroney in 2024. Fans nonetheless acquired to see the Virginia phenomenon carry out “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” at last year’s 58th annual show.

For the 2025 occasion, Shaboozey is slated to hit the stage along with his Wilson Jr. collaboration, “Took a Walk,” a monitor they wrote and recorded for The Long Walk. More performers are anticipated to be introduced quickly, however for now, take a look at the CMA’s submit beneath.

BigXthaPlug is in the midst of an enormous 12 months, thanks partially to the success of I Hope You’re Happy. The 11-song effort featured a number of nation heavyweights, together with Darius Rucker and Bailey Zimmerman, who joined him on “All The Way.”

“I basically just went and looked for who I felt had the most soul in they voice, or who I could hear the most pain,” BigX defined to music/bigxthaplug-cover-story-interview-visionaries-performance/”>UPROXX about choosing his collaborators for the LP. “Because that’s what I feel like the project was about for me. The project is about every outcome of a heartbreak.”

He continued, “You got the Ella Langleys, who you can tell she was going through something at that time. You got the Jelly Rolls, who got just as much soul as me. You got the Luke Combs, who was able to switch it up.”