Keith Urban stunned the audience at the CMA Awards in Nashville on Monday by appearing onstage for a surprise duet with hostess Lainey Wilson.
The evening marked his first TV performance since it emerged in September that Urban had split from Nicole Kidman after 19 years of marriage.
In the wake of the divorce news, past clips have resurfaced of Urban’s cozy onstage antics with guitarist Maggie Baugh, 25, fueling romance rumors about them.
One video showed him pointing to Baugh as he sang: ‘I was born to love you’ in Las Vegas, while another was of him changing his lyric: ‘Baby I’ll be the fighter,’ to: ‘Maggie, I’ll be your guitar player,’ during a show in Chicago.
Now in the slipstream of the collapse of his marriage, Urban hit the stage at the start of the CMA Awards as part of Wilson’s opening medley of hit country songs.
The final number in her intro was Urban’s 1999 single Where the Blacktop Ends – and Urban himself showed up with his guitar to sing it with her.
Keith Urban stunned the audience at the CMA Awards in Nashville on Monday by appearing onstage for a surprise duet with hostess Lainey Wilson
The evening marked his first TV performance since it emerged in September that Urban had split from Nicole Kidman after 19 years of marriage; pictured at the CMA Awards in 2023
Now in the slipstream of the collapse of his marriage, Urban hit the stage at the start of the CMA Awards as part of Wilson’s opening medley of hit country songs
Wilson began by going down into the audience to sing famous country songs with the people who originated them – for example Redneck Woman with Gretchen Wilson, Gunpowder and Lead with Miranda Lambert and A Bar Song (Tipsy) with Shaboozey.
But when she returned to the stage, the crowd received an unexpected treat as Urban materialized there to accompany her for Where the Blacktop Ends.
Prior to Wilson’s monologue, the CMA Awards this year had a cold-open in the form of Luke Combs giving a barnstorming rendition of his new song Back in the Saddle.
Rising bluegrass star Zach Top, who won Best New Artist, delighted the crowd with his song Guitar, a cut off his new album Ain’t In It for My Health.
