CMT has announced that Patti LaBelle and Tanya Tucker are being honored during the first-ever CMT Smashing Glass: A Celebration of the Groundbreaking Women of Music television special set to air on November 15 at 9/8c. 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.
The new multi-genre musical event recognizes women ‘who have smashed stereotypes, broken records and defiantly blazed trails for future generations of female artists.’ Smashing Glass will merge performances with documentary-style storytelling leading up to LaBelle and Tucker each taking the stage to deliver a performance. Additional show details, performers and special guests will be announced soon.
Margaret Comeaux, CMT’s Senior Vice President of Production, Music & Events and Executive Producer, shared: “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. 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.”
Patrizia DiMaria, Executive Producer added: “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.”
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