Inaugural ‘CMT Smashing Glass’ To Honor Patti LaBelle & Tanya Tucker

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CMT has announced a new multi-genre musical event, CMT Smashing Glass, which recognizes women who have smashed stereotypes, broken records and defiantly blazed trails for future generations of female artists. The inaugural celebration will honor the careers of legends Patti LaBelle and Tanya Tucker, and air exclusively on CMT Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. CT.

Blending once-in-a-lifetime performances with documentary storytelling, each icon will be honored with a pair of tributes by artists they’ve inspired before taking the stage for their own performances. Additional show details, performers and special guests will be announced soon.

“We’re beyond excited to bring this electrifying and empowering new franchise to life by honoring iconic women who’ve fearlessly ‘smashed glass ceilings’ and kicked in doors, holding them wide open for past, present and future generations,” shares Margaret Comeaux, CMT’s Senior Vice President of Production, Music & Events and Executive Producer. “Both Patti and Tanya deserve to be celebrated for continuing to set the industry gold standard with boundary-breaking crossover success, bold, uncompromising lives and careers, and creating timeless music and impact that remains as powerful and relevant as ever.”

CMT Smashing Glass will also pay respect to the late women of music with memorial tribute medleys to Aretha Franklin, Sinead O’Connor and Tina Turner.

“Inspired by so many other women who have smashed glass ceilings before us, we’ll also pay homage to three other female juggernauts with in-show ‘Moments of Respect,’ nodding to Aretha Franklin, the ‘Queen of Soul’ who forever altered the path for women with her legacy of demanding ‘R.E.S.P.E.C.T,’ the ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ Tina Turner, who empowered the world with her resilience, and Sinead O’Connor, who broke the traditional ‘pop star’ mold and used her life and music to illuminate the world’s burning issues,” states Patrizia DiMaria, Executive Producer.

Leslie Fram, CMT’s SVP of Music & Talent and Executive in Charge of Talent, adds, “CMT Smashing Glass is a grand finale to a landmark 2023 which we dedicated as our ‘Year of the Woman.’ Kicking off in January with a milestone 10th anniversary of the Next Women of Country (NWOC) franchise, we celebrated female voices across all programming and events – from our women-led headliners at the CMT Music Awards and Equal Play honoree Shania Twain, to bi-monthly NWOC artist showcases and the greenlight of our CMT Defining series, we remain dedicated to Equal Play and advocating for the trailblazers of the past, superstars of the present and the future voices in our format.”

CMT Smashing Glass is helmed by an all-female production team. Working alongside Comeaux, DiMaria and Fram is Michelle Mahoney and Lauren Quinn, who serve as Executive Producers. Quinn also works as Director, Jackie Barba and Heather D. Graffagnino are the Executives in Charge of Production and Suzanne Bender serves as Talent Producer.

Liza Anderson
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