The big show, held Nov. 20 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, was hosted by Luke Bryan, Peyton Manning and Lainey Wilson. (Why Manning? The retired NFL quarterback, who has been co-hosting since 2022, talked about it here.)

Wilson entered the winner's circle as well, being crowned Female Vocalist of the Year. Other big winners included Chris Stapleton (Male Vocalist of the Year, among others) and Megan Moroney (New Artist of the Year). Morgan Wallen won Entertainer of the Year but was a no-show, leaving presenter Jeff Bridges to awkwardly fill some air time.

Country legend George Strait won the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award and there was a star-studded tribute to the "All My Ex's Live In Texas" singer's discography. He gave his wife of 53 years, Norma, a sweet shout-out in his speech.

Kacey Musgraves wasn't an award winner, but she was on the red carpet.

Here are a few highlights from the celebration of country music:

Carrie Underwood was a surprise performer -- with Album of the Year winner Cody Johnson (Leather) -- and fans seem delighted to see her back. She previously hosted the awards show 12 times, the last in 2019. Underwood and Johnson sang "I'm Gonna Love You," their collaboration released in September.

Musgraves gave a beautiful performance of "The Architect," off her album Deeper Well, for which she was nominated for Album of the Year. She has said she wrote the song, with Shane McAnally and Josh Osbourne, in Nashville "a couple weeks after the insane Covenant School Shooting that happened there, and the community was just reeling and it felt just so off and scary... It sparked this very real conversation about life and how it's really confusing how there's so much suffering," which you feel in the words as she sang.

The tribute to Strait featured the best in the business -- including Miranda Lambert, Jamey Johnson, Parker McCollum and Wilson and more. But the audience was thrilled when the star himself got on stage with Stapleton for their "Honky Tonk Hall of Fame," making for a moment.

Speaking of tributes, it was solo cups up to Toby Keith, who died in February.

And Ashley McBryde's singing Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through The Night" was another.

Finally, Jelly Roll was part of two of the night's best performances. He and Keith Urban, working his guitar, sang about addiction with "Liar."

The other was his emotional performance joining Brooks & Dunn for their song "Believe."