After Maddie & Tae’s Weeping CMT Music Awards Acceptance Speech …
Maddie Font from Maddie & Tae was post-game-Super-Bowl-excited when she took the CMT Music Awards stage to accept Duo/Group Video of the Year. Then, she spotted her duo partner, Tae Kerr, and she fell apart.
It was an astonishing pivot that led even the most stoic country fan to find a tissue.
"I miss you so much, I can't do this without you," Font told Kerr, her bandmate for nearly a decade and best friend for even longer. After five years of bad luck and setbacks — a label closing, a bad breakup, songs that didn't work on radio, a canceled tour — the 26-year-old was having an emotional catharsis on stage.
When she finished, a familiar face was there for her.
What you didn't see on TV was that inside Nashville's Municipal Auditorium, Carrie Underwood was waiting to hug Maddie Font as she walked off the stage. The eventual Video of the Year winner had been sitting next to Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany, but after Maddie & Tae's win, Underwood switched seats and ended the show alongside her 2019 tourmate.
After the show, the party started — or at least, we think it did. The duo hasn't posted a message on social media, so maybe they made too good on this promise:
"So, can I come to your house and just get drunk?" Font asks Kerr in a post-show call. "Did you already pump? She already pumped, we're ready to party!"
Kerr is nursing a 3-month-old baby girl who was born in January, months earlier than she was due. That explains why Tae was at home when she and Maddie won the CMT Award for "Woman You Got."
This marks their first CMT Music Awards win and their second among the major country music awards, after a win for Video of the Year at the 2015 CMA Awards.