Bailey Zimmerman, Shaboozey, and Blake Shelton: Breaking Down CMA Fest 2026’s Headliners
CMA Fest’s night shows at Nissan Stadium are anchored by three artists in 2026 who represent strikingly different points in country music’s current landscape. Here’s what to expect from each headliner and why their booking makes sense for this particular moment in the genre.
Bailey Zimmerman
The Illinois native came out of nowhere in 2021 with a self-recorded TikTok track that accumulated millions of streams before he’d ever played a proper tour. By 2023 he was selling out arenas. By 2026 he’s a stadium headliner — one of the fastest trajectories in modern country music. Zimmerman’s music sits at the intersection of rock and country: loud guitars, emotionally raw vocals, songs about heartbreak and grit that resonate particularly strongly with male listeners under 35. His CMA Fest set is expected to lean heavily on his 2024 album Religiously and newer material. Expect high energy and a crowd that knows every word.
Shaboozey
The Nigerian-American artist born Collins Obinna Chibueze broke through with his 2024 record-breaking hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which spent an unprecedented 19 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100. His sound blends country, rap, and R&B in ways that feel genuinely new rather than calculated. He’s the kind of artist CMA Fest needs to signal that country music’s tent is expanding — and his booking reflects the CMA’s awareness that the genre’s future looks different from its past.
Blake Shelton
The Oklahoma veteran is comfort food at this point — reliable, crowd-pleasing, and enormously skilled at working a large stadium. Shelton’s catalog of hits spans two decades, and he delivers them with consistent professionalism. For many festivalgoers, a Blake Shelton set is the perfect bookend to a festival weekend.
