Loretta Lynn In Attendance At CMA Awards

To kick off the 53rd Annual CMA Awards, 14 female country stars shared the stage to perform nine of the genre’s biggest hits from female artists spanning more than 40 years.

Hosts Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood and Dolly Parton kicked things off with a performance of “Those Memories of You,” a song first recorded by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris in 1987.

Jennifer Nettles joined Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman and Karen Fairchild to sing the 1971 Loretta Lynn hit “Lookin’ at Country.” The Highwomen followed with Tammy Wynette’s “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad” from 1967.

Tanya Tucker then performed “Delta Dawn,” the song that made her famous at age 13 in 1972. Gretchen Wilson joined the women on stage to sing her Grammy Award-winning song “Redneck Woman.”

Crystal Gayle, country legend and sister of Loretta Lynn, took the stage to perform “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” from 1977. Terri Clark and Sara Evans took turns singing their career-making hits “Better Things To Do” and “Born To Fly” respectively.

The collaboration concluded with Martina McBride performing her signature song “Independence Day” with the help of her fellow female artists.

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What made it even more special was that a legend herself was sitting in the audience watching the ladies sing! Yep, Loretta Lynn was in attendance cheering on her friends!

Watch the full performance below.