CMT announced CMT SMASHING GLASS: A Celebration of the Groundbreaking Women of Music, an all-new, genre-defying musical salute to the incomparable women who smashed stereotypes, broke records and defiantly blazed trails for future generations of female artists. CMT SMASHING GLASS will premiere Wednesday, November 15th at 9p/8c, exclusively on CMT.
This year, CMT will honor the exceptional careers of prolific icons Patti LaBelle and Tanya Tucker, two barrier-breaking legends who challenged the status quo and paved the foundation for their fellow women in music. Fusing once-in-a-lifetime performances with documentary storytelling, each icon will be honored with a pair of tributes by artists they’ve inspired before both taking the stage for their own unforgettable performance.
“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,” shared 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 additionally honor and pay respect to the late women of music with memorial tribute medleys to a trio of female juggernauts: Aretha Franklin, Sinead O’Connor and Tina Turner. Additional show details, performers and special guests will be announced soon.
“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,” added Patrizia DiMaria, Executive Producer.
Added Leslie Fram, CMT’s SVP of Music & Talent and Executive in Charge of Talent: “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 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. CMT’s Margaret Comeaux and 21st Floor Productions’ Patrizia DiMaria, Michelle Mahoney and Lauren Quinn are executive producers; Quinn also serves as director. Jackie Barba and Heather D. Graffagnino are executives in charge of production; Leslie Fram is executive in charge of talent. Suzanne Bender is talent producer.
