The 2025 CMA Fest concluded Sunday evening (June 8), and after 4 days of festing, tens of hundreds of nation music followers saved the power going sturdy as they stuffed Nashville’s Nissan Stadium for one last night.
All through a lot of this yr’s CMA Fest, which ran from June 5 to eight, rainclouds hovered over Nashville, casting uncertainty on scheduled musical performances and in the end forcing delays at Nissan Stadium one night. However Sunday evening, clear skies and heat temps setting the stage for a strong CMA Fest finale, as followers danced and sang alongside to new songs and basic hits. Because the night revelry continued into the wee hours of Monday morning, the roster primarily served as a show of the depth and breadth of sounds emanating from one among music’s most dominant genres.
The Sunday evening lineup was additionally one of many venue’s strongest in the course of the fest, with the principle stage providing a top-shelf lineup of performances from Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Zach Prime, Ashley McBryde, Rodney Atkins and Bailey Zimmerman.
“That is the best weekend of our lives,” Bentley informed the group throughout his set. “Name it the ‘nation music singers’ Thanksgiving.’”
On the Platform Stage, followers caught a mighty glimpse on the abilities of just some sterling newcomers, together with Avery Anna’s dynamic folk-pop storytelling, Kashus Culpepper’s blues-drenched model of nation, and rising hitmaker Tucker Wetmore. In the meantime, Dylan Scott additional amped up attendees with a crowd-pleasing efficiency of “Nation Til I Die.”
Right here, we take a look at 5 prime moments at Sunday night’s Nissan Stadium present.
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Rodney Atkins and Son Elijah Supply Nostalgia-Crammed Efficiency
Rodney Atkins kicked off the night with renditions of his hits like “If You’re Going By way of Hell,” however he introduced one of many night’s sweetest, most nostalgic moments when he introduced his 24-year-old son Elijah onstage to sing with him. They carried out a collaboration of “Watching You,” a young track about how a younger boy pays consideration to his father’s selections — constructive and unfavorable — and hopes to at some point be identical to his previous man. Atkins wrote and recorded the track when Elijah was simply 4 years previous, so to see them collaborate on the track twenty years later marked a sentimental second for a lot of followers.
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Ashley McBryde Delivers A Don Henley Traditional
Grammy winner Ashley McBryde has cast a fame for strong track craft and rock star-style performances, combined together with her wit and heat as an entertainer. Her CMA Fest set at Nissan Stadium showcased her versatile efficiency model, as she not solely supplied up her personal hits (like “One Evening Requirements”) but in addition launched the Roots of Music marching band. A spotlight got here when she carried out a canopy of Don Henley’s 1984 hit “Boys of Summer season,” as McBryde’s commanding voice made the rock hit her personal.
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Zach Prime Graduates to the Primary Stage
Final yr, Zach Prime performed the platform stage at Nissan Stadium. This yr, he’s graduated to the principle stage, due to his debut nation album Chilly Beer and Nation Music — which gave nation music an ’80s/’90s-inspired elevation through breakthrough hits “Sounds Like The Radio” and “I By no means Lie.” His throwback sound conjures imagery of sawdust flooring, well-worn honkytonks and nation summer time nights, but in addition feels refreshingly fashionable, a sound that may convey a celebration ambiance to the most important of levels. In the meantime, his laid-back efficiency model and ace musicianship mix for a performer who can attract a crowd in any form of venue.
“This appears like a enjoyable, full-circle second,” he mentioned, then used that huge second within the CMA Fest highlight to introduce a brand new summer time anthem, “Good Occasions and Tan Strains,” which he launched not lengthy after his efficiency. The track is from Prime’s upcoming new album, Ain’t In It For My Well being, out Aug. 29.
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Bailey Zimmerman & BigXThaPlug Convey Sizzling 100 Smash to the Primary Stage
Bailey Zimmerman introduced his thousand-watt power to Nissan Stadium’s major stage on Sunday evening, and introduced an additional shot of star energy when he welcomed BigXthaPlug for a rendition of their prime 5 Billboard Sizzling 100 hit collab “All The Manner,” extending the style’s canon of wildly profitable rap/nation hybrids. Zimmerman adopted along with his first Sizzling 100 prime 10 hit, the angst-fueled “Rock and a Onerous Place,” which obtained the viewers lighting up telephones throughout the sector and shouting the lyrics again to the stage, spurred on by Zimmerman’s sturdy, nimble vocal efficiency.
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Dierks Bentley & Zach Prime Convey a ‘Mountain Music’ Second
Bentley gave the evening a shot of humor and humbleness throughout his CMA Fest efficiency, as he took time to reward “the all-star followers” early in his set. He went on to supply up hits each new and basic, together with “Gone,” “Free and Straightforward (Down The Street I Go)” and “Drunk on a Aircraft,” but in addition highlighted “She Hates Me,” from his upcoming album Damaged Branches (out June 13).
After all CMA Fest’s Nissan Stadium reveals and collaborations make for a basic pairing, and Bentley supplied up one of many night’s greatest when he welcomed his tourmate Prime again to the stage for a canopy of Alabama’s 1982 hit “Mountain Music,” with Prime even lending some interesting lead guitar runs. Along with being a longtime, dependable hitmaker in his personal proper, Bentley has been a powerful proponent of championing a brand new era of artists, and did in order that evening by saying of Prime, “Let me let you know one thing about this man… that is the way forward for nation music proper right here, Zach Prime.”