The CMT social audience has shown over and over that they love performance content, especially when it hits on nostalgia and established artists. To super serve our fanbase we wanted to create a series that allowed us to work with seasoned artists (15+ year) who are still at the top of their game, and releasing hits.
For an artist, the various ‘stages’ of their careers, from the inception of their career to breakout moment to present day are often highlighted by a key song. Through performance and interview, we wanted to document these ‘stages’ in the digital series CMT Stages.
Each episode in the series highlights a country artist whose career has stood the test of time- spanning years, trends, and some interesting hair choices. In this performance series, we follow a single artist's journey from first single to biggest hit to their latest release. Filmed at a location that is meaningful to the artist’s career, we hear about their journey alongside unique performances of iconic songs.
Young filmed his “CMT Stages” episode in Chris Young Café on campus at MTSU and delivers stripped-back performances of his hits, including “Gettin'You Home (The Black Dress Song),” “I’m Comin’ Over” and “Famous Friends.” He shares family photos, talks about his childhood, his lifelong relationship with music, his run on “Nashville Star,” and how he had to be patient while waiting for his music to connect at country radio. Young also goes in-depth on the infection that could have killed him in 2013.
“It was really serious,” Young said. “When you go through something like that, it does cause you to be grateful for even the bad days because I could have very easily not had any more of them.”
Young signed with RCA Nashville in 2006 and has earned 12 No. 1 songs and more than 5 billion streams.
Full episodes premiere across CMT social with standalone performances published individually to amplify reach. Select performance from the shoot were also chosen as a music video to air on CMT, CMT Music and PlutoTV channels.
Our premiere episode was shared across CMT social channels, and in collaboration with our featured artist Chris Young. The episodes garnered over 1.25M views and also saw earned media placements across various country music outlets as well as iHeart radio syndicate websites.
