Cassadee Pope Fires Up the CMT Music Awards with Pitbull and Leona Lewis

It’s not every day that one would see country singer Cassadee Pope performing on the 2016 CMT Music Awards stage with Pitbull and Leona Lewis. But the three mixed together made for a wild collaboration like none other.

The trio sang Pitbull’s latest single with Enrique Iglesias called “Messin’ Around.” Only this time, Pope and Lewis took over for Iglesias as they provided the background vocals to Pitbull. The performance was full of fun surprises, including dancers all over the stage as Pitbull cha-cha’ed his way through the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

The crossover between the three artists really highlighted what the awards show is all about: combining the best of the best in all genres of music.

“Every year, these shows need to have a different personality,” said CMT’s John Hamlin. “If you made the same show year after year, that would be too predictable. But balancing that with being unpredictable — which is what a lot of people expect from the brand — that is what I’m trying to do. The goal is always to create a fresh and interesting new show. Every awards show should have a narrative, a point of view that represents that network or that evening. I think it’s very clear that the CMT Music Awards — over the last 10 years — has created its own lane, which is a good thing. But it is challenging to top yourself year after year so that you aren’t doing the same thing all over again.”

Pope just released her new EP, Summer, featuring the title track as her latest single. Lewis was nominated for CMT Performance of the Year with Adam Lambert for their performance of Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” during CMT Artists of the Year.