Music world comes together to honor Patsy Cline's legacy at tribute concert
Wynonna, Kristin Chenoweth, Reyna Roberts and more performed Cline's hits.
The music world came together Monday night to honor the legacy of country icon Patsy Cline.
"Walkin' After Midnight: The Music Of Patsy Cline" was held at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, Monday night and featured the likes of Mickey Guyton, Ashley McBryde, Kellie Pickler and Wynonna -- to name a few -- performing Cline's biggest hits.
The event kicked off with opening remarks from first lady Jill Biden, who said Cline "changed the music industry so profoundly it's hard to imagine what our world looked like before."
Cline's incredible career was cut tragically short when she died in a plane crash in March 1963 at the age of 30.
"With each barrier broken, she pulled a generation with her -- women for whom the world's doors now opened a little more easily," Biden said, later adding, While Patsy may have left us far too soon, as we sing as one, as her music beats in our hearts, as she inspires us to find a strength we didn't know we had, we add new chapters to her story, carrying forward a legacy that has no end."
Guyton kicked off the show, performing Cline's 1957 hit -- and the namesake of the tribute concert -- "Walkin' After Midnight."
The show continued with Tami Neilson singing "3 Cigarettes in the Ashtray," Crystal Gayle singing "Always," Rita Wilson singing her original song "Big City Small Town Girl," and Dailey & Vincent singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky."
Reyna Roberts, who was recently featured on Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" track "Blackbiird," performed "I've Loved and Lost Again."
Roberts called Cline a "trailblazer," an "icon" and a "bada**" in a backstage interview with "Good Morning America."
"I'm here because she paved the way for me," she said. "It takes a lot of courage and a lot of confidence to know yourself, to make those paths and to blaze your own trail."
Roberts added that she hopes to "blaze a trail and leave a legacy behind like Patsy, like Beyoncé," saying "that has always been my dream and my biggest aspiration."
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Beverly D'Angelo, who played Cline in the 1980 Loretta Lynn biopic "Coal Miner's Daughter," then sang "Too Many Secrets," followed by a slew of other performances including Michelle Wright on "Faded Love," Grace Potter on "Strange," Jaime Wyatt on "He Called Me Baby," Pam Tillis on "So Wrong" and Tigirlily Gold on "How Can I Face Tomorrow."
Wynonna took to the stage for the first time in the evening to sing "Sweet Dreams" before McBryde closed out the first half of the show singing "Leavin' on Your Mind."
Kicking off the second half of the show, Kristin Chenoweth performed a stripped-down rendition of Cline's 1961 ballad "I Fall to Pieces."
Chenoweth called Cline "the singing actress" when speaking to "GMA" backstage.
"Growing up in Oklahoma and listening to gospel and Broadway and country, I always felt like, of course I respond to her, just like the way I respond to Judy Garland," she said. "What Judy is to Broadway is what Patsy is to country music."
"I'd never seen her, obviously, but I heard her and thought, 'That lady means what she's singing.' It taught me a great lesson: Only sing things that you can really mean," she continued. "Again, another lesson: Do you. She did her, and it served her very well."
Tiera Kennedy, who was also featured on Beyoncé's "Blackbiird" cover alongside Roberts, took to the stage to sing "Back in Baby's Arms."
"My favorite thing about Patsy is that in the amount of time we had her, she had so many hits and had such a big career. I think that's definitely something to be celebrated," Kennedy told "GMA" backstage. "There will never be another like Patsy."
After Home Free delivered their version of "Seven Lonely Days," Annie Bosko wowed with "You're Stronger Than Me."
Bosko, using three words to describe Cline when chatting with "GMA" backstage, said "classic," "crooner" and "emotion."
The singer called Cline "the queen of classic country" and "the greatest country crooner of all time," adding that "when you break down all of these songs, there's just so much beautiful human emotion in them that's so vulnerable."
Bosko said everyone can connect to Cline's music, saying that it "takes us to this magical place."
The night's lineup continued with Sara Evans singing "You Belong to Me," Hailey Whitters singing "If I Could See the World (Through the Eyes of a Child)," Natalie Grant singing "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and Mandy Barnett singing "Why Can't He Be You" -- but not before Pickler took to the stage to sing her song "The Woman I Am," which namedrops Cline.
Pickler acknowledged her nerves when addressing the audience, noting that it was "the first time I've been up onstage in a while."
The "American Idol" alum said she was "incredibly honored" to be paying tribute to Cline, calling her "a huge reason why I fell in love with music."
Pickler's song choice is one she wrote with her late husband Kyle Jacobs, who died by an apparent suicide in February 2023, as the title track for her 2013 album.
"The last time I was here in the Ryman Auditorium was with him on a date night, and I know he is here with us tonight," she said.
Wilson then performed for the second time of the night, this time singing Cline's song "She's Got You."
After Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo delivered a rendition of "Imagine That," Wynonna brought the house down with Cline's 1961 hit "Crazy."
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