On Wednesday night, CMT honored the brightest stars in the world of country music at their annual Artists of the Year ceremony at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville. This year, however, the roster of honorees was notably different from previous editions of the ceremony: All of the 2018 honorees were women. Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Hillary Scott, Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman were among the talented females recognized. The women-centric event was a coup for the country world, which has long been overwhelmingly male-dominated.

As part of the award show’s live entertainment, two powerful vocalists—Maren Morris and Brandi Carlile—delivered an appropriately stirring rendition of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, the Carole King-, Gerry Goffin-, and Jerry Wexler-penned anthem popularized by the late Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. The performance was introduced by Smokey Robinson, who grew up alongside Aretha in Detroit and remembers her as one of his oldest friends.

Notes CMT News, Maren Morris has been covering the song on tour on a regular basis since Franklin’s passing earlier this year. She has also cited Carole King as one of the biggest influences on her own songwriting work. In a recent interview with CMT, Morris explained the impact of seeing Franklin perform “Natural Woman” in King’s honor at her Kennedy Center induction ceremony. As Maren explained,

When Aretha passed, I remember seeing that video from the Kennedy Center from a couple years ago, where Aretha was honoring Carole. Just the power this woman had in these really tumultuous racially tense times, gave this R&B singer one of the biggest songs of her entire career. And it just didn’t matter the color of anyone’s skin, or their sex for that matter. They panned the camera to Barack Obama who was crying at ‘Natural Woman’ because it hits all of us. We all have mothers, wives, and sisters.

You can watch Brandi Carlile & Maren Morris perform “Natural Woman” at the CMT Artists of the Year ceremony below, as well as a clip of Morris’ award acceptance speech:

Brandi Carlile & Maren Morris – “Natural Woman” [Carole King/Aretha Franklin cover]

[Video: CMT]

Maren Morris Artists of the Year Acceptance Speech

[Video: CMT]

[H/T CMT News]