‘CMA Country Christmas’: Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood to Host, Performers Announced

Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood are joining forces to celebrate the season as the hosts of this year’s CMA Country Christmas broadcast. 

The Country Music Association announced the news on Tuesday, also revealing the slate of performers on tap for the festive celebration. The 14th annual holiday television special will include performances from Grant, Lady A, Ashley McBryde, Jon Pardi, Lindsey Stirling, The War and Treaty, Zach Williams, Lainey Wilson and Yearwood. 

CMA Country Christmas is filmed in Nashville in front of a live studio audience. The show is set to air Thursday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, and streams the next day on Hulu and Disney+. 

The announcement comes on the heels of last week’s 57th annual CMA  Awards ceremony, which saw Wilson win big as she took home the night’s top honor of Entertainer of the Year. Wilson also won awards for Album of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year, among others.

Grant announced her plans to release new music for the first time in a decade earlier this year, following the 2022 bicycle accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury. In March, she dropped the song “Trees We’ll Never See,” followed by “What You Heard.” 

Last December, Grant was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors and told ET that her recovery had been slow but steady. 

“I feel fantastic. It’s been the quietest season of my life… and to get back up to speed and, within one week, ease into this experience here, it’s been incredible,” Grant said.

As for her recovery journey, Grant told ET that she’s leaned into the emotions that come with experiencing a traumatic injury. 

“What I’ve experienced, I think anytime you have a head injury, there’s an extravagance of emotion. So, anytime I start to get emotional, I just start wiggling my toes because I don’t want the dam to break, or it’ll just be a big ugly cry,” she shared. “But the beautiful side of that is you feel sensitized to everyone and everything, and I hope I don’t lose that.”

Her last full studio album of original songs was 2013’s How Mercy Looks From Here. She followed that up with 2016’s Christmas album, Tennessee Christmas, and released a collaborative Christmas album with her husband, Vince Gill, in 2022, titled Christmas Traditions. 

Yearwood also released a Christmas album with her husband, Garth Brooks, in 2016, called Christmas Together. Her latest original album is 2019’s Every Girl. 

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