Taylor Swift Is Returning To The CMA Awards Stage — Her First Performance There In 13 Years

Taylor Swift is going back to the stage where her story started. The Country Music Association and ABC announced on Friday, November 13, that Swift will perform at the 60th Annual CMA Awards on Wednesday, November 18 — her first performance on the show in 13 years. The announcement, made on Good Morning America, instantly became one of the most talked-about music stories of the week, and it sets up a return that has been a decade in the making.

The ceremony airs live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville from 8 to 11 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, with streaming on Hulu the next day. Lainey Wilson hosts for the third consecutive year. Swift joins a lineup that already includes Cody Johnson, Ella Langley, Kacey Musgraves, Luke Combs, Megan Moroney, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Tucker Wetmore, Vince Gill and Zach Top — but hers is the name everyone is talking about, because nobody expected her back on this stage.

Thirteen Years Since ‘Red’

Swift last sang at the CMA Awards on November 6, 2013, when she performed an acoustic version of “Red” alongside Alison Krauss and Vince Gill. That same night she received the Pinnacle Award, the show’s highest honour for an artist who has achieved global success. Her most recent appearance at the ceremony came in 2016, when she returned to present the Entertainer of the Year Award to Garth Brooks. So November 18 is two returns at once: her first appearance at the show in 10 years, and her first performance there in 13.

The gap is the story. Swift first attended the CMA Awards in 2006 as a 16-year-old newcomer, won her first CMA Award in 2007 — the Horizon Award, now known as New Artist of the Year — and became the youngest CMA Entertainer of the Year ever in 2009, winning the prize again in 2011. Then came the pop turn: 1989 arrived in 2014, and the country world’s biggest star became the pop world’s biggest star instead. The CMA stage was where country music first claimed her, and it is where she is choosing to come back.

She Comes Back As A Nominee

This is not a nostalgia booking. Swift returns as a current contender: she is nominated for Single of the Year for “I Knew It, I Knew You,” the original song she wrote for the Disney and Pixar film Toy Story 5, produced by Jack Antonoff. It is her 26th career CMA nomination and her first at the show since 2022 — and she has never won Single of the Year. Days before the performance was announced, the song reached No. 1 on U.S. country radio, her first song to top that chart in 13 years.

What she will sing on the night has not been announced. The CMA and ABC announcement names no song for the performance, and no collaborators have been confirmed. Rolling Stone confirmed she is not part of the Brooks & Dunn tribute showcase, which honours this year’s recipients of the CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. The show will also include a tribute to Dolly Parton, and Ella Langley leads the nominations with nine.

Why One Night Matters So Much

Awards shows hand out comeback slots all the time, and most of them are forgotten by the next morning. This one is different because of what it is not: Swift has not announced a country album, a country tour, or any change of direction. She has simply agreed to sing, on country music’s biggest night, in the same week her country song topped country radio. The performance is the statement — and the fact that nobody knows which song she will sing is part of why the whole country world is watching.

For the CMA Awards, turning 60, the booking is a gift: the biggest star in music returning to the stage that launched her, on the show’s milestone night. For Swift, it is a homecoming with a twist — she left Nashville’s biggest stage as a country star, and she returns to it as the biggest pop star alive, singing a country song she wrote for a cartoon. Thirteen years is a long time to stay away from home. On Wednesday night, she walks back in.

Thirteen years after she last sang on the CMA stage, Swift returns as a nominee — not a nostalgia act, but a current contender.

THE STORY SO FAR

2006 — Taylor Swift first attends the CMA Awards as a 16-year-old newcomer.

2007 — She wins her first CMA Award, the Horizon Award, now known as New Artist of the Year.

2009 — She becomes the youngest CMA Entertainer of the Year ever, and wins the prize again in 2011.

November 6, 2013 — Her last CMA performance: an acoustic “Red” with Alison Krauss and Vince Gill. She receives the Pinnacle Award the same night.

2016 — Her last appearance at the ceremony, presenting Entertainer of the Year to Garth Brooks.

September 2026 — Swift posts on Instagram Stories that she will attend the CMA Awards, her first appearance in a decade.

November 13, 2026 — The CMA and ABC announce she will perform at the 60th CMA Awards. Days earlier, “I Knew It, I Knew You” reached No. 1 on U.S. country radio.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Wednesday, November 18, 8 to 11 p.m. ET — the 60th Annual CMA Awards air live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on ABC and Disney+, streaming on Hulu the next day.

The performance itself — the CMA and ABC have not said which song Swift will sing, and no collaborators have been confirmed.

Single of the Year — Swift is nominated for “I Knew It, I Knew You.” A win would be her first in the category.