Remember When Kellie Pickler Made the Entire CMA Awards Audience Cry?

Pickler looked flawless taking the stage in a strapless red gown as she sang her auto-biographical song “I Wonder." 

Written by Laura Hostelley
Remember When Kellie Pickler Made the Entire CMA Awards Audience Cry?
Kellie Pickler at the 41st Annual CMA Awards on November 7, 2007 in Nashville TN; Photo by Rick Diamond/WireImage

It has been 10 years since Kellie Pickler made her debut performance on the CMA Awards, but that performance won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

“Growing up watching the CMAs as a girl and seeing all of my favorite country music singers up there, it was such an unbelievable experience to share that same stage with them, the people who I grew up watching perform,” Pickler told PEOPLE about her first time taking part in “Country Music’s Biggest Night.” “I looked down and George Strait was sitting in the front row and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ It was such a beautiful moment for my soul and my heart.”

Pickler looked flawless taking the stage in a strapless red gown as she sang her auto-biographical song “I Wonder,” a track about a mother who abandoned her daughter.

“Oh, I hear the weather’s nice in California/There’s sunny sky as far as I can see/If you ever come back home to Carolina/I wonder what you’d say to me,” the chorus reads.

This song hit close to home to the American Idol alum as her mother left her when she was only two-years-old and they had not spoken in 12 years. Moments before Pickler was scheduled to perform, she learned that her mother had been talking about her on television.

“At that time I felt like, ‘Tonight I’m good enough?’” Pickler confessed to PEOPLE  in 2008. “Why would she come out and ruin this special night? This is supposed to be one of the most magical nights of my life. And I worked hard for it.”

She made it through the heart-wrenching ballad without missing a note. As the final lines approached, tears began to stream down her face and she had a hard time making it through the final words. Her emotions were so high, she had to speak the final line, “I’m in Tennessee.”

As the performance concluded, the audience erupted in applause and awarded her with the standing ovation she deserved.