LUKE COMBS WINS ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR AT 55TH ANNUAL CMA AWARDS (Audio & Video)
DEBUTS NEW SONG “DOIN’ THIS” DURING LIVE BROADCAST, WATCH THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO NOW
Luke Combs made the television world premiere of his new track “Doin’ This” on the 55th Annual CMA Awards.
Yeah, you know, I think the idea of doing a brand new song on the CMAS is a little bit nerve wracking. Especially in the midst of a tour, you know, having limited time to rehearse and, you know, but we’re excited. It’s exciting. You know, I really love this song and I’m really excited for people to kind of hear first taste of a new project from myself and the guys, so it’s gonna be really fun.
Yeah, you know, Country Radio has been a huge part of, of my whole experience doing this, you know, I mean, I wouldn’t be here, you know, without everybody spending these tunes and you know, I wouldn’t be you know, sitting here as you know, CMA Entertainer of the Year without you guys. And, so everybody that’s, that’s working country radio, everybody that’s listening, I love you guys and thank you so much for for helping me and my band and crew and team and family and friends you know achieve our goals. And we owe y’all a lot and we really appreciate it.
Photo Credit: Zack Massey
Luke Combs: We hit the road super hard this year. And it’s honestly been the craziest, most stressful, most strenuous tour that I’ve ever been a part of, for a multitude of reasons. Obviously, you know, it’s different touring right now, you know, with the, with the climate of, of what’s going on in the world. And my team stepped up for me when I needed them to. And, that meant so much to me, that they were willing to risk, you know, their health, or safety to go out and play shows for people because I think the world needs that right now. Every show that we’ve done has been incredible. The fans have been so excited to be there. It’s been so amazing to be a part of it every night. And, this really just feels like it’s for everybody that goes out on the road with me and sacrifices time away from their family and loved ones to do what we do every night. So this one’s for them.
Luke Combs: I don’t know. I mean, I hadn’t processed it at all, to be completely honest with you. I mean, this is, you know, there’s so many people that make this happen. I mean, my whole team, my band and crew, my road crew, I mean, my, you know, management, label, booking, I mean, there has to be hundreds of people that made this happen. So I’m not sure how to feel yet to be honest with you. Obviously, I’m incredibly excited, overjoyed, like lifetime dream come true. achieved. And I’m just trying to figure out what to feel to be honest with you, it just doesn’t seem real, to be to be completely honest with you.
Luke Combs: Me and, you know, the guys I was nominated for Song of the Year with tonight wrote that song as well with me. And we were sitting in the in the man cave at my house, probably three quarters of the way through 2020 and we couldn’t come up with anything to write about to be honest with you, we didn’t have a title or an idea. And they’re just sitting on the back porch talking and said, ‘You know, I get asked in interviews a lot, you know, what would you be doing if you weren’t doing this?’ And the answer was always, you know, jokingly, I would say, I would be homeless, it would be my joking answer. But it’s like, I really don’t, there was never a plan B. Like once I decided that this is what I was going to do. It’s what I was going to do, whether that was at this level, or at the level that I was at, when I started, I would be chasing this if I wasn’t holding it in my hand right now. And I’ll always be doing that. You know, I mean, music is the thing that I think makes everybody who does what I do you know, blood pumping, gets him out of bed in the morning and just to be able to do that write a song about it that you feel like genuinely can connect with some of your peers is really cool. So I was I was honored to be able to play a new one tonight and hope everybody loved it.
Luke Combs: To anybody that’s been to a show that came tonight, Thank you so much. You know, I know that you didn’t have to come out and it’s probably been a little bit of a stressful decision to go well, am I ready to do that? Am I ready to go back out? But it has made, you know, all of my dreams and my band and crews’ dreams, dreams come true. So we appreciate everybody spending their hard earned money. This one’s for the fans. This one’s from my road family, my road crew. I would just say say thanks to them. It’s an unforgettable night for me for sure.
Luke Combs: I don’t know…You know, we’re doing 360 in the round right now, and we don’t have any pyrotechnics. We don’t have any, you know, frills. I think the way that that the shows that Brick Street felt the way that the shows in any of those small bars felt were the thing that me and my band thrived on. And I don’t ever want us to lose that feeling. Or I don’t ever want the fans to lose that feeling. I don’t want them to lose the feeling of he cares about what’s going on. ‘This is a, this is a personal experience for me, even if I’m all the way in the back or all the way in the front.’ I want people to be able to relate to the songs to the feelings to the moment of being there. Being at the show and feeling like it’s something that they can sink their teeth into and not just going up and playing the greatest hits from start to finish, and not really saying anything of any substance. It’s just never been something that I wanted to do. And it’ll be something that I will continue to try to strive for is making that show a personal experience for every fan in there, not just the fan in the front row.
Luke Combs: I mean, when I started out, you know, I was the same guys that my parents raised. And I feel like I was, you know, before I win this trophy, and I feel like I am now so I think continuing to be that person. Continuing to be humble, obviously, you know, being excited. I’m excited that I one man, everybody that’s nominated for this award wants to win and you just feel like it’s… (Randy Goodman, Chairman & CEO, SMN, steps in to congratulate Luke Combs on win)
Luke Combs: Ah, look at that baby.
Randy Goodman: Holy cow, excuse me.
Luke Combs: But man, it’s, um, you just want to you just want to, you know, I’ve always just wanted to be a guy that people felt like they wanted to root for. Felt like a guy that could be their neighbor or a guy they wanted to have a beer with and I feel like I’ll always be that guy, man. It’s just who I am. It’s never gonna change and very thankful.
Country superstar Luke Combs won Entertainer of the Year at last night’s 55th Annual CMA Awards. Combs also surprised the world with the release of his new song, “Doin’ This,” coinciding with his live debut of the song during the CMA Awards broadcast. Listen to the song HERE and watch/share the official music video HERE.
A personal reflection on his own life and career, Combs shares, “This song means a lot to me personally. Not to recite the lyrics, but for me, it’s truly about playing country music for a crowd, whether that’s 70 people or 70,000 people, and playing country music with my buddies in the band. It really doesn’t matter where we’re playing or how many people we’re playing for because it isn’t about the fame, the fortune, the name, or the glory. It’s about getting to make and play country music.”
Known for his electric live performances, the 6x CMA, 3x ACM and 3x Billboard Music Award-winner is currently in the midst of an extensive headline arena tour featuring a special new in-the-round stage design. Upcoming stops include Dallas’ American Airlines Center (two nights), New York’s Madison Square Garden (two nights) and Boston’s TD Garden (two nights) as well as a series of Canadian tour dates in 2022. See below for complete itinerary.
Combs current single, “Cold As You,” is Top 5 and rising at country radio—his seventh single released to radio from What You See Ain’t Always What You Get. The previous six singles along with his first five singles from his debut album have all gone No. 1—a historic, record-breaking run. Moreover, Combs recently released his new song, “South On Ya,” which has been selected as the official theme song for the SEC Network’s 2021 football season.
Out now via River House Artists/Columbia Nashville, What You See Ain’t Always What You Get debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart as well as Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart last fall. The deluxe edition features all 18 tracks from Combs’ double Platinum-certified, global No. 1 album, What You See Is What You Get, as well as five new songs. With the release, Combs reached No. 1 on Rolling Stone’s Top 200 Albums chart, Top 100 Songs chart and Artists 500 chart—the first country artist ever to lead all three charts in the same week and first to top the Artists 500.
Combs also recently made history as the first artist ever to have their first two studio albums spend 25 weeks or more at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart—breaking Taylor Swift’s previously held record at 24 weeks. The achievement comes as What You See Is What You Get topped the chart for the 25th time last summer, while his 2017 debut, This One’s For You, has spent 50 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1—tying the record for the longest reign atop the chart with Shania Twain’s Come On Over in 1997.
Additional notable achievements and recognitions:
- – Winner of two awards at the 54th Annual CMA Awards: Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year (What You See Is What You Get)
- – Winner of two awards at the 55th ACM Awards: Album of the Year (What You See Is What You Get) and Male Artist of the Year
- – Recent winner of two iHeartRadio Music Awards: Country Artist of the Year and Country Album of the Year (What You See Ain’t Always What You Get)
- – Nominated for Male Video of the Year (“Lovin’ On You”) and Performance of the Year (“1, 2 Many” with Brooks & Dunn) at 2021 CMT Music Awards.
- – Won three awards at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards: Top Country Artist, Top Country Male Artist and Top Country Album (What You See Is What You Get)
- – Recent winner of three iHeartRadio Music Awards: Country Artist of the Year, Country Album of the Year (What You See Is What You Get) and Country Song of the Year (“Beautiful Crazy”)
- – Only country artist to perform on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” Season 45
- – Inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry
- – Awarded CMT Performance of the Year at the 2019 CMT Music Awards for his CMT Crossroads performance of “Beautiful Crazy” with Leon Bridges
- – Awarded Top Country Artist, Top Country Male Artist and Top Country Album at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards
- – Awarded New Male Artist of the Year at the 54th ACM Awards
- – Awarded Country Artist of the Year at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards
- – Awarded New Artist of the Year at the 52nd Annual CMA Awards
- – Nominated for Best New Artist at the 61st GRAMMY Awards
- – Recipient of a CMA Triple Play Award for writing three No. 1 songs in a 12-month period
- – First artist to simultaneously top all five Billboard country charts for multiple weeks: Top Country Albums, Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay, Country Streaming Songs and Country Digital Song Sales (dated March 9, March 30 and April 6)
- – This One’s For You is certified RIAA Triple Platinum and was also the most-streamed country album of 2019.
- – All five songs on his The Prequel EP charted on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Top 25—a feat not accomplished by any artist in 60 years since Johnny Cash in 1959.
LUKE COMBS CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
November 16—New Orleans, LA—Smoothie King Center
November 18—Dallas, TX—American Airlines Center
November 19—Dallas, TX—American Airlines Center
November 20—Memphis, TN—FedEx Forum
November 29—New York, NY—Madison Square Garden
November 30—New York, NY—Madison Square Garden
December 2—Boston, MA—TD Garden
December 3—Boston, MA—TD Garden
December 15—Las Vegas, NV—T-Mobile Arena
December 16—Salt Lake City, UT—Vivint Smart Home Arena
March 11, 2022—Glasgow, Scotland—C2C Festival at The SSE Hydro
March 12, 2022—Dublin, Ireland—C2C Festival at 3Arena
March 13, 2022—London, England—C2C Festival at The O2
March 20, 2022—Toronto, ON—Scotiabank Arena
March 21, 2022—Toronto, ON—Scotiabank Arena
March 24, 2022—Ottawa, ON—Canadian Tire Centre
March 26, 2022—Quebec City, QC—Videotron Centre
March 28, 2022—Montreal, QC—Centre Bell
March 30, 2022—London, ON—Budweiser Gardens
March 31, 2022—London, ON—Budweiser Gardens
May 1, 2022—Indio, CA—Stagecoach
LUKE COMBS STADIUM TOUR 2022
May 21, 2022-Denver, CO-Empower Field at Mile High
June 4, 2022-Seattle, WA-Lumen Field
July 30, 2022-Atlanta, GA-Mercedes Benz Stadium
Media Contacts:
Courtney Beebe
Sony Music Nashville
[email protected]
Asha Goodman
Sacks & Co.
[email protected]
Carla Sacks
Sacks & Co.
[email protected]