The first winner at the CMT Music Awards has been announced! Carly Pearce with Chris Stapleton won the Collaborative Video of the Year trophy for “We Don’t Fight Anymore.” The song is from Pearce’s forthcoming hummingbird album
“I wanna say first, thank you to Chris Stapleton, for making all of my dreams come true, and being a part of this song with me,” Pearce said from stage. “I wanna thank Lucy Hale and Shiloh Fernandez for playing the leads in this video, and taking it to new heights. Fans, fans, fans, fans, fans — I won Breakthrough Video of the Year in 2017 or 2018, and you guys changed my whole life that night, and you continue to, so God bless you. You are the greatest people in the entire world. You make all of our dreams come true, and we’re so grateful for that.”
Pearce was joined on stage by Alexa Campbell, who directed the video, with Pearce publicly praising her for being the mastermind behind the dramatic narrative.
“And I also want to say, this girl right here, her name is Alexa Campbell, and she directed this video.” Pearce shared. “She told me years ago — she was my tour photographer — and she told me her dream was to be a director, and I told her to come direct my videos, so Alexa, this is just as much yours as it for me. God bless you country music fans.”
When releasing the “We Don’t Fight Anymore” video, Pearce praised the actors who made the “We Don’t Fight Anymore” story come to life.
“Having talents like Lucy and Shiloh were truly such a gift,” Pearce said at the time. “The ‘space’ you feel between the two of them is felt so tragically at every moment of this video.”
Pearce knew she wanted Stapleton to join her on “We Don’t Fight Anymore,” but reached out to his wife to see if she could ask on her behalf.
“When we wrote it, I heard Chris singing on it,” Pearce recalled on Audacy’s Coop. “I don’t know why. I kind of just heard him singing harmony on it, and I DM’d his wife, Morgane, and asked her if I could send a song for him, and it just snowballed. He ended up doing something so special on it, that unlocked the other side to the story, and it’s literally the most proud I’ve ever been to put out a song.”
When announcing the release of hummingbird, Pearce said she drew on the lessons she learned from her 2021 record, 29: Written in Stone.
“[It] really taught me just how vulnerable I could be and how that could transcend,” Pearce told Billboard. “Even though I thought I was only writing my story, it seems like I’ve been writing a lot of other people’s stories.”
Pearce is joining Tim McGraw this year on his Standing Room Only Tour this year. Find all of Pearce’s music and upcoming shows at CarlyPearce.com.
Photo Credit: Getty Images for CMT
