Taylor Swift to Perform at the CMA Awards 2026: Time, How to Watch

Taylor Swift is going back to country music's biggest stage. The Country Music Association and ABC said Friday morning, Nov. 13, that Swift will perform at the 60th annual CMA Awards next Wednesday in Nashville. The last time she sang on the show was 2013.

She had already said she would be in the room. When the nominations came out, Swift said publicly that she planned to attend, Variety reported, but until Friday nobody knew whether she would do more than sit in the audience. By Friday afternoon, "taylor swift cma performance" and "cma awards 2026 time" were climbing in Google's search suggestions.

When the CMA Awards 2026 air

The 60th CMA Awards air Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026, from 8 to 11 p.m. ET on ABC, live from Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville. That's 7 p.m. in the Central time zone, where the show is also live.

The CMA's viewing guide lists the start as 8 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Mountain and 7 p.m. in Alaska. West Coast viewers should expect the broadcast in their usual prime-time slot rather than at 5 p.m., but local ABC schedules can vary, so it's worth checking your station's listing that evening.

How to watch the CMAs without cable

The show streams live on Disney+ at the same time it airs on ABC. If you can't watch Wednesday night, the full show goes up on Hulu the next day, Nov. 19. Any live TV service that carries your local ABC station will also have it.

For fans who want the red carpet and backstage material, the CMA is running a separate CMA Awards Backstage Live stream hosted by Lauren Alaina and Haley Baylee, according to the association's announcement.

What Taylor Swift might perform

The CMA didn't say. The obvious guess is "I Knew It, I Knew You," her original song for Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5, which is up for Single of the Year. That's her 26th career CMA nomination.

The song matters to this story for another reason. Variety's Chris Willman noted it was her first brand-new song in more than a decade to be marketed as a country single, and it reached No. 1 at country radio. She co-wrote it with Jack Antonoff, who is on this year's list of first-time CMA nominees. The track is also being pushed for an Oscar for best original song and was submitted for song of the year at the Grammys, Variety said.

Swift, 36, married Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in July, ABC News noted. Expect cameras to look for him in the crowd, even on a Wednesday in the middle of the NFL season.

Taylor Swift's history at the CMA Awards

This year marks 20 years since Swift first showed up at the CMAs in 2006, not long after her debut album came out. Her record there is long:

• 2007: Won the Horizon Award, the CMA's best new artist honor.
• 2009: Won Entertainer of the Year at 19. She's still the youngest artist ever to take the show's top prize.
• 2013: Received the Pinnacle Award, presented by Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts, all acts she had opened for early in her career. She also performed "Red" with Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. That was her last time performing on the show.
• 2016: Made a surprise appearance at the end of the telecast to hand Garth Brooks the Entertainer of the Year award. Until now, it was her last time at the show at all.

She has won 12 CMA Awards over her career, according to Deadline, including Entertainer of the Year twice. After 1989, she moved fully into pop and mostly stepped away from country, though she never cut ties with Nashville. She kept dipping back in with songs like "Betty" and a vault duet with Chris Stapleton, "I Bet You Think About Me."

Who's hosting and who else is performing

Lainey Wilson hosts for the third straight year. She's also the defending Entertainer of the Year, a title she won in 2023 and again in 2025.

The performer list was already crowded before Swift was added. According to Variety and the CMA, it includes Ella Langley, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Kacey Musgraves, The Red Clay Strays, Zach Top, Tucker Wetmore, Luke Combs, Vince Gill, Megan Moroney, Mumford & Sons, Chris Stapleton, Wilson herself and Stephen Wilson Jr.

Two tributes are planned. Brothers Osborne, Luke Bryan, Halestorm, Hardy and Marcus King will take part in a salute to Brooks & Dunn, and the show also has a tribute to Dolly Parton in the works. Presenters haven't been named yet; the CMA says they'll be announced in the coming days.

CMA Awards 2026 nominees to watch

Swift may get the headlines, but this is Ella Langley's year on paper. Langley leads the field with nine nominations, one short of the single-year record Alan Jackson set in 2002, Variety reported when the list came out. Her hit "Choosin' Texas" shows up in Single, Song and Music Video of the Year.

The official nominee list has Miranda Lambert next with seven, Kacey Musgraves and producer Ben West with five each, and Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and Stephen Wilson Jr. with four apiece.

Entertainer of the Year nominees

• Luke Combs
• Cody Johnson
• Ella Langley
• Chris Stapleton
• Lainey Wilson

It's Langley's first time in the category. Winners are picked by the CMA's professional voting members, about 7,083 of them this year, according to the association.

Can you still get tickets?

A limited number of seats remain, the CMA said Friday, sold through CMAawards.com. With Swift now on the bill, anyone hoping to go should check soon.

If you're keeping a list of what to watch this month, we've also been following the music side of The Hunger Games with the Sunrise on the Reaping soundtrack, and ABC's other big announcement this week, Sam Hartman as the next Bachelor.

For the CMAs, the plan is simple: ABC or Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday. Swift's slot in the running order hasn't been announced, so if you only want her performance, you'll need to sit through more than one song.