CMA Awards 2023 recap: All the biggest wins and epic performances

Lainey Wilson won the CMA Award for female vocalist of the year. This is Wilson's second win in the category after taking home the award last year.

"This is for all of the hardworkin' ladies that I know, that I don't know. I see ya," she said in her acceptance speech. "For all you little girls watching, and for the ones that are here tonight too, it's something that I'm doing, I'm getting up every single day and look[ing] at myself in the mirror and saying, 'I am beautiful. I am smart. I am talented. I am godly. I am fearless. If somebody tells me I can't do it, hold my beer -- watch this.'"

She added, "Here's to all the ladies who blaze trails every single dang day of their life."

Other nominees up for the honor included Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce.

Carly Pearce and Chris Stapleton took the CMA Awards show stage to perform their song "We Don't Fight Anymore," which they released in June.

The duo were nominated for musical event of the year for the song.

"To say this is a dream come true would be an understatement," Pearce captioned an Instagram post about her performance with Stapleton ahead of the awards show.

Lainey Wilson took home the CMA Award for album of the year for "Bell Bottom Country" during Wednesday's ceremony.

The singer said her album was inspired by her small hometown of Baskin, Louisiana.

"You sit around a kitchen table and tell the same ol' stories you've been hearing for years, the kind of stories that get better every single time you hear 'em," she said. "Stories that make you laugh, make you cry, make you want to drink a beer -- just make you feel something. That's what we wanted to do with this record."

Other nominees in the category included Ashley McBryde's "Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville," Luke Combs' "Gettin' Old," Morgan Wallen's "One Thing at a Time" and Kelsea Ballerini's "Rolling Up the Welcome Mat."

Several country music stars took the stage to pay tribute to the late Jimmy Buffett, who died Sept. 1 at age 76.

Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Mac McAnally and Zac Brown performed a medley of Buffett's biggest hits including "A Pirate Looks at Forty" and "Margaritaville."