Carrie Underwood choked back tears as she accepted an award as a 2016 CMT Artist of the Year Wednesday night in Nashville. The event was broadcast on CMT Thursday night.
Olympic gymnasts Madison Kocian and Aly Raisman introduced the American Idol season 4 winner. The invitation came about after Madison met Carrie at a concert stop in Dallas last month. The singer is in the midst of her world wide Storyteller tour.
Before the presentation Carrie performed the Storyteller track “Like I’ll Never Love You Again” with the songwriters, Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna and Liz Rose, aka the Love Junkies.
“Aw, man,” Carrie said, smiling at her husband Mike Fisher in the audience. “I don’t know why I’m getting teary-eyed. I think it was seeing my little guy on the screens.” An introductory video featured clips of Carrie’s “little guy” Isaiah, culled mostly from the singer’s instagram.
“Thank you, Mike, for just being so supportive throughout this tour,” she added. “It’s been so much fun being on the road. It’s definitely hard being away from you. But you’re the best. The people I work with, again, I’m just so blessed. I’m so lucky I have the best people surrounding me and thank God for you guys.”
Check out Carrie Underwood’s performance and moving acceptance speech right here.
Carrie Underwood performs “Like I’ll Never Love You Again”
Carrie Underwood accepts a 2016 CMT Artist of the Year award