CMA Fest 2024 may have concluded with Sunday evening’s (June 9) lineup at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium, but fans were far from winding down. Instead, the tens of thousands of country music diehards came ready to party with everything they had left on the fest’s fourth night.
Sunday’s lineup included Josh Turner, Megan Moroney, Brothers Osborne, Carly Pearce, Jackson Dean, Bailey Zimmerman, and country/rock purveyor HARDY. Meanwhile, the platform stage featured two not-to-be overlooked newcomers: Zach Top and Wyatt Flores.
In all, the evening’s performances put country music’s vast breadth of sounds and influences on display, ranging from modern-day hits to covers of songs nearly five decades old. The night found traditional-minded country strains mined by artists including Turner, Top, Moroney and Pearce.
The deep-voiced Turner offered up his hits, including “Firecracker” and “Long Black Train,” in addition to his new single, “Heatin’ Things Up.” Newcomer Top staked his traditional country claim from the start of this two-song set, lacing his song “Sounds Like the Radio” with nods to Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee” and the year 1994, midway through a decade when artists including Jackson, Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire spearheaded country music’s rapid ascent into an economic powerhouse.
Meanwhile, Moroney — who will release her new album Am I Ok? on July 12 — offered up cleverly-crafted songs such as “No Caller ID,” “Man on the Moon,” “Indifferent” and her breakthrough hit “Tennessee Orange,” with her writing often based on classic country frameworks and torn from her own personal history of romantic wins and losses.
Brothers Osborne were clearly in their element, pouring forth an amalgam of blues, rock and country, while Dean offered an unfiltered, rock-soaked performance. Mississippi native HARDY, who topped seven different Billboard charts with his album The Mockingbird & the Crow, closed out the show with his mesh of grunge-rock, metal and country while offering up a handful of surprises.
Jelly Roll and Ashley McBryde served as hosts for much of the evening, with the Nissan Stadium shows taped as part of the upcoming three-hour primetime special CMA Fest, slated to air on June 25 on ABC (and stream on Hulu the following day).
Here, we look at five top moments from Sunday’s show that closed out this year’s CMA Fest:
