Carrie Underwood & Katy Perry Lead a Star-Studded Dolly Parton Tribute Night in Nashville

Nashville has thrown its share of parties for country royalty over the years, but Wednesday night felt different. The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts was packed wall to wall with the genre’s biggest names, all of them there for one reason: Dolly Parton. The occasion was CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton, a two-hour live television tribute to the icon who passed away on August 25, and by the time the red carpet wrapped up, the lineup read like a who’s who of modern country music.

The moment that had everyone talking? Carrie Underwood and Katy Perry posing together on the red carpet, arm in arm and grinning like old friends. Underwood, an American Idol winner who grew up singing Dolly’s songs, looked every inch the country superstar. Perry, for her part, seemed right at home among the Nashville crowd. It was one of those cross-genre pairings that only happens when the occasion is big enough, and honoring Dolly Parton is about as big as occasions get.

A Red Carpet Full of Country Royalty

Look at this guest list and try not to get emotional. Reba McEntire showed up — because of course she did. Reba and Dolly were peers, friends, and mutual admirers for decades, and there was no universe in which Nashville’s queen of everything was missing this one. Brad Paisley walked in with his wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley on his arm, and Lainey Wilson — the reigning CMA darling — was there too, all lit up. She’s never hidden how much of her blueprint comes straight from Dolly.

And the next generation? They showed up in force. Ella Langley, one of the fastest-rising voices in the game, worked the carpet alongside Kelsea Ballerini, Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde, and Molly Tuttle. Five women, five different sounds, one shared hero. That’s Dolly’s fingerprint right there — she never handed down one formula. She just told every girl with a guitar that her weirdness was the point. Oh, and Kristin Chenoweth showed up in full Broadway-meets-Nashville glory, because she wouldn’t waste a show-stopping moment if you paid her. Amy Grant, too, all grace as usual.

Nor was it a women-only affair. Darius Rucker, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, banjo wizard Béla Fleck, Lukas Nelson, Sierra Hull, Lady A, and Little Big Town all filed down that carpet. When that many heavy hitters clear their schedules for one night, you don’t need a press release to tell you what she meant to this town. She meant everything.

What the Special Is All About

So here’s the setup: they filmed the concert in front of a live audience at Belmont University’s Fisher Center, and it airs live on ABC at 9pm ET. Two full hours, one woman, zero filler. The official synopsis bills it as a “joyful, emotional celebration of the artist, songwriter, entertainer, humanitarian and entrepreneur whose music and generosity carried her from the mountains of east Tennessee into the hearts of generations around the world” — performances, archival footage, and personal stories from people who knew her best.

That word “joyful” matters. Anyone who knew Dolly knew she wouldn’t have wanted a weepy, somber memorial. She built her whole brand on turning heartbreak into harmony and poverty into punchlines. The woman who once said she was the first woman to burn her bra — “it took the fire department four days to put it out” — would have insisted on a party. And Nashville delivered one.

There was also a cause baked into the night. The CMA and Belmont University announced that proceeds from the event will be donated to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the literacy program she founded in 1995 that has since mailed out well over 200 million free books to children around the world. Leave it to Dolly to make her own tribute concert raise money for kids learning to read. That was always her superpower: she never let the spotlight just sit there. She aimed it at something that mattered.

Why This Tribute Hits So Hard

Two months on, and Dolly Parton’s passing on August 25 still doesn’t feel real. She wasn’t just a singer — where do you even start with what she was? A business genius who bought back the rights to her own songs when Nashville’s power brokers acted like she’d lost her mind. The woman who turned a Tennessee theme park into a full-blown American institution. The philanthropist who quietly funded vaccine research. And oh yeah — she wrote “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene” in the same songwriting session. One afternoon. Still the most ridiculous flex in music history, and nobody will ever top it.

And here’s the thing about Wednesday night’s lineup: it tells you exactly who she was. Country purists like Ricky Skaggs and Vince Gill. Pop-adjacent stars like Katy Perry and Kelsea Ballerini. Songwriter’s songwriters like Béla Fleck and Sierra Hull. Soul singers like Darius Rucker. Broadway royalty like Kristin Chenoweth. Dolly didn’t belong to one genre. She belonged to all of them, and all of them showed up to say so.

Carrie Underwood’s presence felt especially fitting. When Carrie won American Idol in 2005, she talked about Dolly as a role model — not just for the voice, which is obvious, but for the way Dolly handled fame with humor, warmth, and steel underneath. Watching Carrie pose on that red carpet, you could feel the full-circle weight of it. The student becomes the tribute.

Katy Perry’s connection runs deeper than people might think, too. She spent her early career straddling gospel, pop, and country-adjacent sounds, and she’s spoken before about admiring how Dolly built an image everyone underestimated and used it as armor. Two blondes with big voices and bigger personas — the red carpet photo of the two of them together basically writes its own headline.

The Women Carrying the Torch

If you wanted proof Dolly’s legacy is in good hands, just look at who walked in Wednesday night. Lainey Wilson doesn’t just cover Dolly’s songs — she’s openly said she studies her business playbook, the way Dolly built an empire out of authenticity. Ella Langley is out here making bold, unfiltered country records at an age when most labels would sand down her edges; Dolly would have loved that. Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce write with that same tell-it-like-it-is honesty Dolly perfected back in the seventies, when Nashville men thought feelings were a woman’s hobby. And Kelsea Ballerini? She’s been doing the pop-country balancing act Dolly invented — only with Instagram and streaming to contend with.

And then there’s Reba. Watching Reba McEntire walk a red carpet honoring Dolly Parton hits different, because Reba lived through the same Nashville, played the same rooms, and watched the same industry underestimate them both. They were the two women who proved, separately and together, that a girl from nowhere could run the whole show. Reba’s presence was less a celebrity cameo and more a pillar being where it belonged.

The Imagination Library connection added another layer. Dolly started that program in her home county of Sevier County, Tennessee, because her own father never learned to read. It has since become one of the largest literacy initiatives on the planet. The fact that CMA and Belmont University tied the night’s proceeds to it — keeping Dolly’s mission moving even after she’s gone — was the evening’s quietest and maybe most powerful statement.

What to Watch For

Mark the calendar: the special airs live at 9pm ET on ABC, and if the red carpet is any indication, those performances are going to be stacked. Nobody’s saying which songs are on the setlist — the producers are keeping that close to the vest — but with this much vocal firepower in one building, you’re getting the big ones. “I Will Always Love You.” “Jolene.” “9 to 5.” “Coat of Many Colors.” And hopefully a few deep cuts for the real ones.

The archival footage could honestly be the best part. Dolly spent six decades on television, and some of what’s sitting in those vaults most of us have never seen. An early Porter Wagoner Show duet? A forgotten Seventies variety-show appearance where she’s cracking jokes between songs? If they pull something like that out, the whole night pays for itself.

Honestly, the hardest part of a tribute like this is doing it justice. Dolly Parton was a once-in-a-century figure, and two hours can barely scratch the surface. But Nashville showed up with its best, its brightest, and its most heartfelt. Carrie and Katy arm in arm. Reba holding court. A room full of artists who owe her more than they can say.

Somewhere, you have to think, Dolly is watching — probably with a wig slightly crooked, a joke ready, and a donation envelope already in the mail. She always did like a good show. Wednesday night gave her one.

Source: Just Jared