Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan Bring the Emotion with Country Ballad 'Cowboys Cry Too' at the 2024 CMA Awards

Mar. 15, 2025

Kelsea BalleriniandNoah Kahanare slowing things down.The country singer and the “Stick Season” performer took the stage at the2024 CMA Awardson Wednesday, Nov. 20 to perform their emotional duet “Cowboys Cry Too.“With coordinating white outfits and smoke drifting across the stage floor, Ballerini, 31, and Kahan, 27, brought the waterworks during their performance.“Cowboys cry too/They may not let ‘em fall down in their hometown/Thinking they still got s— to prove/That well runs deep,” Ballerini sings in the chorus. “But when he’s showing his skin, letting me in/That’s when he’s toughest to me/I never knew/Cowboys cry too.“Noah Kahan and Kelsea Ballerini.Michael Buckner/Variety via GettyBallerinidropped the country balladon June 28. In an interviewon the Wayne D Showat the time, she revealed that she met Kahan at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February, and he asked her about her2015 hit “Peter Pan.“Then, when she was working on the song, she thought of Kahan because it honored “the men in my life that are emotional” and she knew he’d be “so down to go there.““He wrote his verse, and it just made the song a million times better,” she said.Check out all of PEOPLE’s full CMA Awards coveragehere.In May, the pair joined forces for a medley performance of “Mountain with a View” and Kahan’s breakout hit “Stick Season” at the Academy of Country Music Awards.“Cowboys Cry Too” served as the lead single for Ballerini’s new albumPatterns. In October, sheopened up to PEOPLEabout the album’s inspiration.Noah Kahan and Kelsea Ballerini.Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty“I think this thing happens when you turn 30 where you kind of assess your life,” Ballerini said. “And I came up for air and I was like, ‘Okay, all right, let’s take a little inventory here. What in my life right now do I love? What feels uncomfortable? What have I contributed to both of those things? What are my patterns? And then what do I want to work on and edit on myself? And then in my closest, most interpersonal relationships, what do I want to edit and challenge and celebrate also?’”She added, “That’s, really, thematically the whole record. It’s just a deep dive in the self-assessment of entering my thirties.“The 58th Annual CMA Awards broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 20 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on ABC. The show streams the following day on Hulu.

Kelsea BalleriniandNoah Kahanare slowing things down.

The country singer and the “Stick Season” performer took the stage at the2024 CMA Awardson Wednesday, Nov. 20 to perform their emotional duet “Cowboys Cry Too.”

With coordinating white outfits and smoke drifting across the stage floor, Ballerini, 31, and Kahan, 27, brought the waterworks during their performance.

“Cowboys cry too/They may not let ‘em fall down in their hometown/Thinking they still got s— to prove/That well runs deep,” Ballerini sings in the chorus. “But when he’s showing his skin, letting me in/That’s when he’s toughest to me/I never knew/Cowboys cry too.”

Noah Kahan and Kelsea Ballerini.Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

Ballerinidropped the country balladon June 28. In an interviewon the Wayne D Showat the time, she revealed that she met Kahan at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February, and he asked her about her2015 hit “Peter Pan.”

Then, when she was working on the song, she thought of Kahan because it honored “the men in my life that are emotional” and she knew he’d be “so down to go there.”

“He wrote his verse, and it just made the song a million times better,” she said.

Check out all of PEOPLE’s full CMA Awards coveragehere.

In May, the pair joined forces for a medley performance of “Mountain with a View” and Kahan’s breakout hit “Stick Season” at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

“Cowboys Cry Too” served as the lead single for Ballerini’s new albumPatterns. In October, sheopened up to PEOPLEabout the album’s inspiration.

“I think this thing happens when you turn 30 where you kind of assess your life,” Ballerini said. “And I came up for air and I was like, ‘Okay, all right, let’s take a little inventory here. What in my life right now do I love? What feels uncomfortable? What have I contributed to both of those things? What are my patterns? And then what do I want to work on and edit on myself? And then in my closest, most interpersonal relationships, what do I want to edit and challenge and celebrate also?’”

She added, “That’s, really, thematically the whole record. It’s just a deep dive in the self-assessment of entering my thirties.”

The 58th Annual CMA Awards broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 20 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on ABC. The show streams the following day on Hulu.

source: people.com