It may have been Wednesday night in Nashville, but Brooks & Dunn and Jelly Roll brought a heavy dose of Sunday morning worship to the 2024 CMA Awards during their rendition of “Believe.”
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The performance started with Kix Brooks on piano and Jelly standing by his side to deliver the opening verse. Next, Ronnie Dunn walked out onstage singing, and stood beside Jelly.
The stars were backed by a vocal chorus, horns and strings, lending even more power to this already emotional ballad.
Jelly wore a black shirt with white embellishments around his collar. The singer’s outfit choices for awards shows and big performances typically hold significance, though it wasn’t immediately clear what these particular designs mean. What was self-evident, though, was the large silver cross Jelly wore around his neck, in a nod to the song’s message of enduring religious faith.
As the song came to its close, Jelly raised his hand up to the audience: “I love you, Lord,” he said into the microphone.
The stars in the crowd reacted powerfully to the performance. One clip showed Carly Pearce clasping her hands and singing along. Little Big Town’s Philip Sweet wiped away tears, while his bandmate Jimi Westbrook didn’t bother trying to hide it: He openly wept right there in the venue.
The Jelly-led new version of “Believe” is one of the standout tracks on Brooks & Dunn’s new Reboot II album, which — for a second time — finds the iconic country duo pairing up with contemporary stars to re-imagine some of their all-time biggest hits.
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Brooks & Dunn had actually given “Believe” the Reboot tribute once before. In the first iteration of the project, Kane Brown offered his take on the spiritual, vocal-forward ballad, which is a story-song about a man who finds faith in the face of immeasurable pain.
But this time around, band mates Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn knew right away that they wanted Jelly Roll to get his hands on this particular track.
“We were really not involved in the artists and the songs they wanted to do. But when our manager came to us, he goes, ‘I really want Jelly Roll to do ‘Believe,’” Brooks explained in an interview surrounding album release day.
The 2024 CMA Awards aired live on ABC from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Luke Bryan, Lainey Wilson and Peyton Manning co-hosted the show.
Jelly Roll was nominated in several categories at the 2024 CMA Awards, including Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. The annual awards show also featured performances by Chris Stapleton, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Post Malone, Shaboozey, and more.
Aside from his performance and several nominations, the rising star–who was also photographed with his wife, Bunnie XO, and fellow musician Megan Moroney while inside the event–was celebrated over a recent milestone in his health journey, losing 100 pounds.
