Country music spent Wednesday night singing to an empty chair. CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton, a two-hour special staged at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Belmont University in Nashville and carried live on ABC and Disney+, honored Parton two months after her death on August 25, at 80, following what her representative described as a brief battle with cancer. Proceeds from the night go to Parton’s Imagination Library, the program she founded to give books to children.
The closing number was the title song. Carrie Underwood, in a white gown with floral embellishments, sang “I Will Always Love You,” and the night’s other performers came back to the stage to join her on the final chorus. The room stood.
The rest of the bill ran the length of her catalog and her influence. Ella Langley sang “Jolene.” Kelsea Ballerini took “Here You Come Again.” Carly Pearce — whose first singing job was at Dollywood, and whom Parton herself surprised with a Grand Ole Opry invitation in 2021 — teamed with Kristin Chenoweth on “9 to 5.” Zac Brown performed “Butterfly” as a duet with Parton’s own prerecorded voice.
The night’s most emotional performance, by the accounts that followed it, belonged to Brad Paisley. With bluegrass picker Sierra Hull beside him, Paisley sang “When I Get Where I’m Going,” the song he and Parton first released together in 2005, and he was visibly fighting his feelings by the final line — “there’ll be only happy tears.” After Parton’s death, Paisley had written: “I never imagined this day would come. Getting to know Dolly was life-changing, but not just for me. For everyone. She seemed immortal… Goodbye, Hero. We will always love you.”
The full bill spanned the music she touched: Ashley McBryde, Béla Fleck, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Darius Rucker, Ella Langley, Kelsea Ballerini, Kristen Bell, Kristin Chenoweth, Lady A, Lainey Wilson, Little Big Town, Lukas Nelson, Molly Tuttle, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs, Sierra Hull, Vince Gill and Zac Brown, with Amy Grant and Kimberly Williams-Paisley as special guests. The special was set to stream on Hulu the following day.
The Facts
- The event: CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton, Wednesday, October 21, 2026, Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Belmont University, Nashville.
- Aired live on ABC and Disney+; streaming on Hulu from the following day.
- Proceeds benefit Parton’s Imagination Library.
- Parton died August 25, 2026, at 80, after a brief battle with cancer, her representative said.
- The close: Carrie Underwood sang “I Will Always Love You,” joined by the full cast for the final chorus, to a standing ovation.
Sources: The Tennessean; People; Taste of Country; CMA.
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