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When it came time to kick off the 2025 CMA Awards on Wednesday night (Nov. 19), Luke Combs didn\u2019t waste any time \u2014 he just hopped \u201cBack in the Saddle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taking to the stage at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Combs \u2014 dressed in his usual short-sleeved button-up shirt and baseball cap \u2014 fired up the stage (literally) with a performance of his country hit, complete with a hefty payload of pyrotechnics to give the show just a little more oomph.<\/p>\n
More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n To set the tone, Combs reshaped the stage to look like the stables at a rodeo, with his band taking up their position in the stalls around him. As flames flared behind him and the crowd cheered him on, Combs wailed his way through the country-rock track to set the tone for the evening. \u201c\u2018Cause I\u2019m back in the saddle like some old cowboy, who dug his way out of his grave,\u201d Combs belted. \u201cPulled up his boots, put his pistol on his hip, climbed up and took hold of the reins.\u201d<\/p>\n Have you played Billboard\u2019s \u201cA Little Bit Country\u201d Crossword? Combs was nominated for three awards at the CMA Awards on Wednesday, earning nods for entertainer of the year, male vocalist of the year and single of the year for his hit song \u201cAin\u2019t No Love in Oklahoma,\u201d which earned the singer his 18th No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart back in September 2024.<\/p>\n Lainey Wilson, along with serving as the evening\u2019s host, was one of the three most nominated artists at the ceremony, alongside fellow singers Ella Langley and Megan Moroney. Meanwhile, stars such as Shaboozey, Brandi Carlile, Kelsea Ballerini and more were set to perform during the three-hour ceremony.<\/p>\n <\/a> Billboard VIP Pass<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it came time to kick off the 2025 CMA Awards on Wednesday night (Nov. 19), Luke Combs didn\u2019t waste any time \u2014 he just hopped \u201cBack in the Saddle.\u201d Taking to the stage at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Combs \u2014 dressed in his usual short-sleeved button-up shirt and baseball cap \u2014 fired up the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2021507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[363305,29110,322828,353699,323283],"class_list":["post-2167768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-back-in-the-saddle","tag-billboard","tag-bridgestone-arena","tag-cma-awards","tag-luke-combs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Charli-XCX-and-George-Daniel-marry-for-second-time-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2167768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2167769,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167768\/revisions\/2167769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2167768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2167768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2167768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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