Little Big Town spotlights Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley McBryde, more in CMA Award 'Girl Crush' moment

Little Big Town has a girl crush on country music's newest up-and-coming female artists. 

The multiplatinum-selling vocal group invited Lindsay Ell, Maddie & Tae, Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley McBryde, Carly Pearce and Runaway June to share its spotlight at the 53rd CMA Awards on Wednesday night. Little Big Town used the moment to showcase the next generation of country music's most promising female artists.

"This performance is going to be super special," Ell promised after rehearsal. Ell and fellow country singer Brantley Gilbert are currently at the top of country radio airplay charts with their duet "What Happens in a Small Town."

"Little Big Town are like the most caring, sweet individuals. They are so generous and so supportive. When they did not need to care about who I was, they would always come backstage and say hello. The fact they wanted to play 'Girl Crush' and make it a woman moment ... it speaks really highly of them."

Maddie & Tae's Maddie Marlow said the duo gets to sing beside "some of their favorite girls" in any genre during the performance.

"It makes a really cool statement," she said. "All of the artists singing this song together is going to make a really cool statement and hopefully wake everyone up to see how many incredible women should be given opportunities in country music. I think it's a really great moment in the show."

Girl group Runaway June, who spent much of 2019 on the road with Maddie & Tae on the Carrie Underwood tour, said the opportunity to perform on the CMA Awards felt like a dream.

"All of us grew up watching the show," explained the group's Naomi Cooke. "We felt silly for dreaming this big and felt like it was unattainable. But, every single day we've been working and chipping away at that since we were kids. To actually be on those stairs ... it was really hitting us. Like, 'Woah, this is big. We are a part of this community.' "

McBryde, who won the CMA Award for New Artist of the Year, said she and Runaway June's Jennifer Wayne were shaking when they walked off the rehearsal stage.

"It's not just nerves," she said. "It's because of the power and what is happening, just the energy that is sparkling through everybody. When a song is this good, it's easy to perform it well. And everybody nailed it. Those magic moments are so rare. You should hold on to them. If your hands are shaking, you should just embrace it."