When the curtain rises on the 2022 CMT Music Awards, hosted by Kelsea Ballerini and Anthony Mackie on Monday, viewers are in for a slew of memorable performances from country’s top stars. Carrie Underwood, Cody Johnson, Kane Brown, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, Maren Morris + Ryan Hurd, Cole Swindell + Lainey Wilson, and a plethora of duos and groups, including last year’s Group/Duo of the Year, Little Big Town, will take the spotlight.
This year, CMT Music Awards performers Old Dominion and Zac Brown Band are nominated in the category, alongside Brothers Osborne, Dan + Shay, Maddie & Tae and Parmalee.
Fans will find out who wins when the 2022 CMT Music Awards airs live from Nashville 8 p.m. (ET) Monday on CBS. In the meantime, here’s a flashback to the last five years of winners in the duo or duo/group category.
2021: Little Big Town – “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”
Written by the band’s Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman and Philip Sweet, along with Tofer Brown and Sean McConnell, “Wine, Beer, Whiskey” is a raucous, up-tempo party song from Little Big Town’s ninth studio album “Nightfall.”
2020: Dan + Shay – “I Should Probably Go to Bed”
A sky-high, harmony-rich ballad that showcases Shay Mooney’s stunning vocal range and the duo’s country-pop sensibilities, “I Should Probably Go To Bed” was written by Mooney, duo partner Dan Smyers, Sean Douglas and Jason Evigan. The heartache ballad was the second single from Dan + Shay’s “Good Things” album, a No. 2 hit on Billboard’s Country Airplay charts, and crossed over to Adult Top 40 where it landed at No. 11. Fans snapped up more than 1 million units of “I Should Probably Go to Bed.”
2019: Dan + Shay – “Speechless”
A multi-week No. 1 hit, “Speechless” was the follow-up to the duo’s breakthrough “Tequila” and the song country music fans danced to at their weddings. The ballad’s video featured scenes from Dan Smyers’ wedding to his wife Abby and Shay Mooney’s nuptials with his wife, Hannah. The video shows the first time they saw the wives in their gowns, the emotional walk down the aisle, the triumphant reception and more.
Smyers and Mooney wrote the song alongside Jordan Reynolds and Laura Veltz, and “Speechless” was included on the duo’s 2018 self-titled third album.
2018: Dan + Shay – “Tequila”
“Tequila” was the song that lifted Dan + Shay to the next stage of their career. Listeners connected with the lyrics about how a specific thing can trigger a flood of memories they strive to keep at bay.
Written by Smyers, Nicolle Galyon and Jordan Reynolds, “Tequila” was a No. 1 radio hit, won the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 61st Grammy Awards and both Single and Song of the Year at the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards.
“Tequila” is from the duo’s self-titled third album.
2017: Florida Georgia Line – “H.O.L.Y.”
The undeniable appeal of “H.O.L.Y.” compelled even critics to be kind to FGL, a feat that had largely illuded the group until the soaring ballad with its sweeping, scenic video. Written by busbee, Nate Cyphert, and William Wiik Larsen, “H.O.L.Y.” which stands for high on loving you, was released in April of 2016 and jumped from No. 39 to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart to become the duo’s fifth No. 1 in that space. It also became their third crossover hit on American Hot AC radio.