Chris Young & Kane Brown Bring the House Down with “Famous Friends” Performance

For the final performance of the 2021 CMT Awards, Chris Young and Kane Brown performed their song “Famous Friends.” Young opened the song and Brown stepped away from his hosting duties to join in on the second verse. Their jovial energy onstage confirmed that these two artists are actually famous friends in their day-to-day lives, outside of their hit single.

“Famous Friends” was released in November of 2020 as a single from Young’s forthcoming album Raised on Country. The track is all about giving recognition to those who support their hometowns, but who are not widely recognized.

“Everybody that gets named in this song is an actual person,” Young told People. “I wrote this with two of my buddies, Corey Crowder and Cary Barlowe, the same two guys that I wrote ‘Raised on Country’ with. We actually wrote this the same weekend. This was the same bus trip. ‘Famous Friends’ was really that kind of song about your hometown and the people you grew up with.”

In addition to the feel-good performance, “Famous Friends” won the award for Collaborative Video of the Year. Brown also took home the award for Male Video of the Year with this song “Worship You.”