Luke Combs and BigXthaPlug are about to pray hard and raise hell on the CMA stage.
The first wave of performers for the 2025 CMA Awards just dropped, and it is not the usual paint-by-numbers country crew. Yes, Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson are front and center, but they are flanked by a cast that includes hardcore Texas pride, a country-rap trailblazer, and a pack of new blood that is ready to stomp boots and shake the walls at Bridgestone Arena on November 19.
Lainey is not just hosting this thing solo for the first time because she is leading the charge with six nominations, tied with Megan Moroney and Ella Langley. It is no surprise all three are booked to perform. This year, the CMAs did not wait to roll out the big guns. They brought fire with the very first announcement.
Ella Langley has something to prove, and she is bringing “Choosin’ Texas” to the stage to do it. It is gritty, bold, and exactly the kind of modern outlaw vibe that has made her impossible to ignore. Megan Moroney is coming in with “6 Months Later,” a song about heartbreak that hits like a drunk text you never meant to send. Zach Top, the slicked-back honky tonk purist with five nominations, will step up with “Guitar,” a song that sounds like it time-traveled straight out of 1989.
Then there is Shaboozey and Stephen Wilson Jr., who are tearing the roof off the genre box. Wilson will sing “Stand By Me” on her own, and then team up with Shaboozey for “Took a Walk,” their collaboration from the film The Long Walk. The blend of old-school soul and frontier grit is weird in the best way, and it is exactly what the CMA stage needs more of.
However, no announcement dropped jaws quite like this one. Luke Combs and BigXthaPlug will perform “Pray Hard.” If you have been sleeping on BigX, now is the time to wake up. The Dallas rapper has quietly become a go-to collaborator for Nashville’s boldest, trading verses with Jelly Roll and Bailey Zimmerman before leveling up to Combs. “Pray Hard” is not just a collaboration. It is a sermon wrapped in Southern grit. It is pain, redemption, and a stadium hook all rolled into one.
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It is also the most unexpected move of Combs’ career, but somehow still feels right. The guy who built his kingdom on “Hurricane” and “She Got the Best of Me” does not need to chase clout. So if he is bringing a Texas rapper to country’s biggest stage, it means something. It means the walls are coming down. Or maybe they already have.
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Tucker Wetmore, another New Artist nominee, will bring “Wind Up Missin’ You,” and Stephen Wilson Jr. is pulling double duty. But it is Lainey Wilson who is carrying this night on her back. With the mic, the monologue, and possibly the biggest award of the night, she is doing what few women in country have ever done, and that is run the whole show from top to bottom.
There are still more performers to be announced, but this first list already reads like a genre shift in real time. It is not just a new class of stars, because it is also a new sound for the CMAs. They have flirted with change before. This time, they kissed it on the mouth and pulled it on stage.
The CMA Awards might be rooted in tradition, but this year’s lineup is anything but safe.
And if Luke Combs and BigXthaPlug light up “Pray Hard” the way we think they will, that stage will not know what hit it.
