Taylor Swift is set to make her highly anticipated return to the Country Music Association Awards next week, ending a 13-year absence from the ceremony.
The 36-year-old superstar, who began her career as a country singer before becoming one of pop’s biggest names, will perform at the CMAs on Wednesday, November 18, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Swift received the prestigious Pinnacle Award at the 2013 CMAs, becoming only the second artist—and the first woman—to earn the honor after Garth Brooks received it in 2005.
It remains unclear which songs Swift will perform. She is nominated for Single of the Year for “I Knew It, I Knew You,” a song from the Toy Story 5 soundtrack.
Ella Langley leads this year’s nominees with nine nods. Miranda Lambert follows with seven, while Kacey Musgraves and Ben West have five nominations apiece.
During the 2013 ceremony, Swift performed an acoustic rendition of “Red” alongside Alison Krauss, Sam Bush, Vince Gill, Edgar Meyer and Eric Darken.
Taylor Swift will return to the Country Music Association Awards next week after a 13-year absence (Above, Swift in Los Angeles on October 17)
Swift won the prestigious Pinnacle Award at the 2013 CMAs, becoming only the second artist—and the first woman—to receive the honor after Garth Brooks in 2005, pictured at the 2013 ceremony
Swift’s return to the CMAs comes as fresh details emerge about her star-studded Madison Square Garden wedding to Travis Kelce.
The pop superstar was pictured with her 37-year-old NFL star husband and two wedding guests, Kelce’s longtime agent Mike Simon and his wife, Lisa, in a post shared by the Hancock County Humane Foundation of West Virginia.
The foundation’s caption explained that Mike and Lisa Simon had made a charitable donation as their wedding gift to Swift and Kelce.
The singer and Kansas City Chiefs tight end reportedly asked guests not to bring traditional wedding gifts. Instead, they requested that attendees donate to charities of their choice.
Swift and Kelce have kept remarkably quiet about their wedding both before and after the ceremony. Many of the details that have surfaced have come from guests who attended the event, making the foundation’s Instagram post one of the few pieces of information released publicly.
The Hancock County Humane Foundation shared the photo with the message: “Four beautiful people, four generous hearts. The Hancock County Humane Foundation is honored to acknowledge a very generous donation from Attorney Mike Simon and his wife Lisa in honor of a very special wedding they recently attended.”
The foundation continued: “The amazing bride and groom asked for donations to charities in lieu of gifts and Mike and Lisa chose us!!”
The amount of the Simons’ donation has not been disclosed, and Swift and Kelce have not revealed which other organizations received contributions from their guests.
Kelce’s agent was one of the less-publicized guests at the couple’s July 3 wedding at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, which reportedly attracted an astonishing 1,000 attendees.
The guest list included several of Swift’s famous friends, among them her longtime friend Selena Gomez. Adam Sandler also attended and left guests surprised when he officiated the ceremony.
In June, Kelce’s friend and San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle told Extra TV that Swift and Kelce had said they wanted “absolutely no gifts” from their guests.
However, the couple’s closest circle—the 100 people invited to their rehearsal dinner—reportedly received a commemorative gift: a diamond-decorated champagne flute, according to Page Six.
The glasses were said to have been presented in black velvet boxes featuring the couple’s initials in silver lettering.
Swift appeared to explain why she and Kelce invited such a large number of guests during an October 2025 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, where she was promoting her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl.
The update comes after new details emerged about Swift and Travis Kelce’s star-studded Madison Square Garden wedding—the couple wed on July 4 (Above, Swift and Kelce in Cleveland, Ohio, in May)
Norton asked Swift whether the wedding would take place in 2026, and she replied: “Oh, you’ll know.”
“So you’re going big,” the host responded.
“I just mean that I was going to invite you to it,” Swift clarified.
Norton joked: “If you’re inviting me, it’s very big.”
The “Shake It Off” singer went on to say that she avoided the pressure of narrowing down the guest list by refusing to force herself to cut people from it.
