Ella Langley, Miranda Lambert and Tim McGraw Will Perform at the 60th CMA Awards on November 18

Thirteen days out, country's biggest night has a stage plan. The Country Music Association and ABC announced the first round of performers for the 60th CMA Awards today, Thursday, November 5: Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Ella Langley, Tim McGraw, Kacey Musgraves, The Red Clay Strays, Zach Top and Tucker Wetmore — plus a special tribute to Dolly Parton, which is the kind of booking that needs no further selling.

The show is Wednesday, November 18 at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, live 8–11 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, and on Hulu the next day. Lainey Wilson hosts for the third consecutive year. More performers and presenters are still to be announced, and a limited number of tickets are still on sale — both facts straight from the announcement, which means this list is the floor, not the finished poster.

The eight performers, ranked by how many nominations each one has this year

Ranked by this year's nominations, counted from the announcement itself — the one scoreboard that matters on the night:

1. Ella Langley — 9 nominations. The most of anyone this year: Entertainer, Album, Female Vocalist, Musical Event and Music Video of the Year, plus two nominations each for Single and Song. She took home three CMA Awards last year. This is her night to lose.
2. Miranda Lambert — 7 nominations. Two for Single of the Year, Album of the Year as a producer, two for Musical Event, Song of the Year as a songwriter, and her 19th nomination for Female Vocalist. The career count is the story: 70 CMA nominations, the most by any female artist in the show's history.
3. Kacey Musgraves — 5 nominations. Album, Song, Female Vocalist, Musical Event and Music Video.
4. Cody Johnson — 4 nominations. Entertainer, Male Vocalist, Single and Music Video — and he's the reigning Male Vocalist of the Year, defending in public.
5. Zach Top — 2 nominations. Male Vocalist and Album of the Year. He won New Artist last year; a year later he's performing as a nominee in the big rooms.
6. Tim McGraw — nominated for Musical Event, and performing as a newly inducted Country Music Hall of Fame member, with 40 career CMA nominations behind him. The announcement frames his set as the milestone celebration, and fair enough.
7. The Red Clay Strays — nominated for Vocal Group, the award they currently hold. Reigning champions, back on the stage.
8. Tucker Wetmore — nominated for New Artist, his second CMA nomination. The newest name on the list gets a performance slot anyway, which tells you what the show thinks is coming.

Why this first lineup already covers the top of the ballot

Award shows usually spread their performers across the whole field. This first batch is concentrated at the very top of the ballot — the Entertainer nominees (Langley, Johnson), the Album nominees (Langley, Musgraves, Top, Lambert as producer), and both ends of the timeline at once: McGraw, forty nominations deep and fresh into the Hall of Fame, and Wetmore, on nomination number two.

And then there's the Parton tribute, the one segment every generation in that arena will stand up for. The CMA hasn't said who performs it. Whoever does joins the night's real storyline: sixty years of this show, honoured by the people currently carrying it.

The rest of the poster lands "in the weeks ahead," per the announcement — which, with thirteen days to go, means soon. Our Music desk calendar has the night pinned alongside the Grammy nominations two days earlier (Monday, November 16 — a very large week for acceptance speeches), and we'll file the winners as they land.