Jelly Roll really is on a roll. The powerful singer and colorful personality won a night-leading three awards at the 2024 CMT Music Awards for the second year in a row. The awards, hosted by Kelsea Ballerini, were presented at Moody Center in Austin, Texas, on Sunday (April 7) and broadcast on CBS.
Jelly Roll took video of the year, male video of the year and CMT performance of the year, all for “Need a Favor.” Last year, he won male video of the year, male breakthrough video of the year and CMT digital-first performance of the year, all for “Son of a Sinner.”
“Need a Favor” reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. This is the third year in a row that the music video of the year winner was a top 15 hit on Billboard’s flagship all-genre songs chart. Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown’s “Thank God,” last year’s winner, also reached No. 13. Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood’s “If I Didn’t Love You,” the 2022 winner, reached No. 15.
Jelly Roll is the first artist to win back-to-back awards for male video of the year since Blake Shelton won in 2013 and 2014 for “Sure Be Cool If You Did” and “Doin’ What She Likes,” respectively.
Jelly Roll’s award for CMT performance of the year was for his rendition of “Need a Favor” on last year’s CMT Music Awards. This year, he closed the show with a performance of “Halfway to Hell.”
Lainey Wilson won female video of the year for the second year in a row. She took the award for “Watermelon Moonshine,” having won last year for “Heart Like a Truck.” She’s the first woman to win in this key category two years running since Carrie Underwood won six years in a row from 2015-20. Wilson’s win here was hardly a surprise. She has amassed seven awards at the CMA Awards in the past two years.
In addition to her win, Wilson performed two songs on the show – her own “Country’s Cool Again” and a cover version of Toby Keith’s 1999 hit “How Do You Like Me Now?!” in a tribute to the late singer.
Dan + Shay won duo/group video of the year for “Save Me the Trouble.” The duo previously won duo video of the year three years running for “Tequila” (2018), “Speechless” (2019) and “I Should Probably Go to Bed” (2020). (The CMT Awards’ separate duo and group categories were combined in 2021. Now that they have three hours to fill, they should make them separate awards again, so they conform with the CMA Awards and the ACM Awards.)
“We Don’t Fight Anymore” by Carly Pearce featuring Chris Stapleton won collaborative video of the year. Both artists are past winners of the award for breakthrough video of the year. Pearce won in 2018 for “Every Little Thing”; Stapleton in 2016 for “Fire Away.”
Ashley Cooke and Warren Zeiders won the awards for breakthrough female and male video of the year, respectively. Many past winners in the CMT new artist category have gone on to very substantial careers, including Dierks Bentley, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt and Ashley McBryde, in addition to the previously-mentioned Stapleton, Pearce and Jelly Roll.
Trisha Yearwood received the June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award. “June Carter Cash was a force, and she was also married to a force – and I know a little bit about that,” she said in accepting the award. She added the she and her husband, Garth Brooks, try to live by the saying “Those to whom much is given, much is expected.” Yearwood also performed the tender ballad “Put It in a Song.”
Host Ballerini was nominated for three awards – video of the year, female video of the year and CMT performance of the year – but didn’t win. But she scored with a performance of “Love Me Like You Mean It.”
