Women swiftly re-take Nashville

The timing works out neatly: Taylor Swift has rediscovered country music … shortly after country rediscovered women.
That all comes together with the 60th Country Music Association Awards, 8-11 p.m. Wednesday (Nov. 18) on ABC. Swift will sing, Lainey Wilson will host, Ella Langley and Miranda Lambert will lead the nominations.
Swift (shown here in her country phase) first attended the CMA’s 20 years ago, when she was 16. The next year, she won the Horizon Award, two years after that, in 2011, she became (at 19) the youngest Entertainer of the Year winner ever.
She repeated in 2013 and went pop, leaving a macho Nashville. Consider:
— Swift’s Entertainer of the Year wins were the only ones by a woman during a 22-year stretch. There were eight consecutive men before her first win, 11 after her second.
— And for six straight years, 2002 through 2007, all the nominees — all 30 of them — were male.
That has changed lately: Wilson won in 2023 and 2025. She was co-host in 2024, then named solo host for two years. And “Dandelion” happened:
Langley, now 27, had solid success with her first album, including two singles in the country top-10 — “You Look Like You Love Me” and “Weren’t For the Wind.” Then she turned to Lambert, who at 43 is a proven star, with six entertainer of the year nominations and 15 country top-10 singles, four at No. 1. Lambert agreed to co-produce and co-write the second album.
That was “Dandelion,” with historic results. It went No. 1 on both the country and pop charts; the song “Choosin’ Texas” had a record 27 weeks (not consecutively) at No. 1 on pop. Other singles — “Be Her,” “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” “Lovin’ Life Again” were in the country top 10.
So this year’s CMA’s already planned a strong female impact. Performers will include Wilson, Langley and Lambert, plus Kacy Musgraves (third in total nominations), Megan Moroney, a Dolly Parton tribute … and lots of guys.
Now Swift has been added, performing at the CMA’s for the first time in 13 years. Her “I Knew It, I Knew You,” from “Toy Story 5,” was No. 1 on both the pop and country charts — her first return to country charts in 13 years.
It’s nominated for best single. So are Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” and “Be Her,” Wilson’s “Somewhere Over Laredo” … and Cody Johnson’s “The Fall,” the outlier in a female-dominated year.