Taylor Swift Is Returning to the CMA Awards Stage — Her First Performance There in 13 Years

Taylor Swift is going back to where it all started. The Country Music Association and ABC announced on Friday, November 13, 2026, that Swift will perform at the 60th Annual CMA Awards on Wednesday, November 18 — her first performance on the CMA Awards stage in 13 years. The show airs live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, and streams the next day on Hulu.

When @thecaughtup shared the news on Instagram on Friday morning, the post’s second slide carried the official 60th CMA Awards graphic: Swift in an off-the-shoulder white gown, with the words “PERFORMING LIVE.” It is official — this is not a rumour, and it is not a surprise appearance. The CMA and ABC put her name on the performer list five days before the show.

Here is the post we shared on Instagram:

What Did the CMA and ABC Announce?

The announcement came on Friday morning, November 13, first reported by Good Morning America and then confirmed in a CMA and ABC press release carried by Pollstar and Country Now. Swift, 36, joins a performer lineup for the 60th anniversary show that already includes Cody Johnson, Ella Langley, Kacey Musgraves, Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, Megan Moroney, Miranda Lambert, the Red Clay Strays, Tim McGraw, Tucker Wetmore, Vince Gill and Zach Top. The night also includes a tribute to Dolly Parton and a salute to Brooks & Dunn, this year’s Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, performed by Brothers Osborne, HARDY, Luke Bryan, Marcus King and Halestorm.

The timing is no accident. This is the 60th CMA Awards, a milestone edition of the longest-running annual music awards show on network television, and Swift’s return is the headline booking of the night. She is a two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year, and her history with the show goes back two decades, to her first appearance in 2006, the year her self-titled debut album arrived.

When Did Taylor Swift Last Perform at the CMA Awards?

Swift’s last CMA Awards performance was on November 6, 2013, at Bridgestone Arena — the same room she returns to on Wednesday. That night was a full-circle moment: she performed an acoustic version of “Red” alongside Vince Gill and Alison Krauss, and she received the CMA Pinnacle Award, presented on stage by Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts — artists she had opened for early in her country career.

She came back to the show once more, in 2016, but not to sing. At the 50th CMA Awards on November 2, 2016, Swift made a surprise appearance in the closing moments of the broadcast to present the Entertainer of the Year award to Garth Brooks. She has not been back since — a decade away from the ceremony, and 13 years away from its stage, as her career moved fully into pop and the Eras Tour became a record-breaking global stadium run, while her country ties continued through songwriting, including “Better Man” for Little Big Town, which won CMA Song of the Year in 2017.

The return was telegraphed in September. When her Single of the Year nomination was announced, Swift posted on her Instagram Stories: “THANK YOU CMA!!!! See you there Nov. 18 🤠.” At that point, though, there was no official word on whether she would perform or simply attend as a nominee. Friday’s announcement settled it.

What Is She Nominated For?

Swift is nominated for Single of the Year for “I Knew It, I Knew You,” the original song she wrote for Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5, written and produced with Jack Antonoff. It is her 26th career CMA nomination and her first since 2022. The song has already made country chart history of its own: it reached No. 1 on U.S. country radio, her first song to top that chart in 13 years.

She faces strong competition in the category: Ella Langley is nominated twice, for “Be Her” and “Choosin’ Texas,” alongside Lainey Wilson’s “Somewhere Over Laredo” and Cody Johnson’s “The Fall.” Whether Swift performs the nominated song on Wednesday is the obvious guess — and it is only a guess. Organisers have not announced her song, or whether other musicians will join her on stage. What is confirmed is the performance itself, and that alone is enough to make November 18 the most-watched CMA Awards in years.

Why Does This Return Matter So Much?

Because the CMA Awards are where Swift’s story began. She won her first CMA Award, the Horizon Award, in 2007, became the youngest Entertainer of the Year winner ever in 2009, and won the top prize again in 2011. Across her career she has won 12 CMA Awards. The Pinnacle Award she received in 2013 is given only to artists who have achieved global prominence through concert performances and record sales at levels unique in country music — a rare honour that, at the time, marked her graduation from country star to global superstar.

Thirteen years later, she returns to that same stage at the 60th anniversary show, in the same arena, nominated for a song from a Pixar film. On Wednesday night, Swifties and country fans alike will be watching to see which song she chooses.

Sources: Pollstar (CMA and ABC announcement, November 13, 2026); Country Now (November 13, 2026); Parade (November 13, 2026); Men’s Journal (November 13, 2026); American Songwriter (CMA nomination history, September 2026); Variety via Devdiscourse (November 13, 2026); BritBrief (November 13, 2026); @thecaughtup (Instagram, November 13, 2026).

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