The 2021 CMT Music Awards, the 55th edition of the awards ceremony, were held in Nashville, Tennessee on June 9, 2021. Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini were hosts of the ceremony.
Background.
The CMT Music Awards are a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances; Voting takes place on CMT's website. The CMT Music Awards is the oldest MTV awards show, dating its history to the 1967 Music City News Awards. MTV acquired the awards show in 2000. This was the second time the on Duo/Group video of the year category has been combined since 2016. 
Linda Martell.
One of the pioneers for Black acts in country music and the first Black woman to perform solo at the Grand Ole Opry, Linda Martell, was honored at the 2021 CMT Music Awards with the CMT Equal Play Award. The CMT Equal Play Award is a commitment to feature more diverse voices from historically marginalized artists, like Martell. The award was presented by Mickey Guyton and featured video messages from Darius Rucker, Rissi Palmer and Rhiannon Giddens. 
Winners and nominees.
Winners are shown in bold.
Performers.
On May 26, CMT announced some performers for the 2021 CMT Music Awards. The final performers were announced on June 7. Maren Morris and Gabby Barrett were previously announced as performers but both backed out; the former was replaced by Ingrid Andress and the latter by Lindsay Ell.
Presenters.
The following have been announced as presenters for the ceremony: