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CMA It's been a big week for Carly Pearce: Wednesday night, she won the Breakthrough Video of the Year trophy at the CMT Music Awards for "Every Little Thing," and Thursday night, she played her first-ever stadium gig at Nashville's Nissan Stadium a...

Watch Now: Carly Pearce talks CMT Award win, CMA Fest stadium performance for "65,000 loving, loving, loving country music fans"

CMA

It’s been a big week for Carly Pearce: Wednesday night, she won the Breakthrough Video of the Year trophy at the CMT Music Awards for “Every Little Thing,” and Thursday night, she played her first-ever stadium gig at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium as part of CMA Fest.

Telling ABC Radio about her emotional reaction to her win on Wednesday night, Carly said, “If you notice, I don’t look at anybody in the artist section because I was too freaked out, being still a fan myself. I was like, ‘just keep crying and keep walking!'”

While her family wasn’t there with her, Carly said, “They immediately texted and said that they were sobbing. I’ve got a really small family but my uncle was crying and everybody was just freaking out. My mom said she replayed it over and over and over!”

Thanks to all her success this week, Carly says she knows what she’d tell the Carly Pearce of the past — that 15-year-old who dropped out of school to get a job singing at Dollywood. 

“I think the biggest thing I would tell her is, ‘Don’t worry and keep working and believe, because it’s all gonna be okay!'” she laughs.

As for playing Nissan Stadium last night, Carly marvels, “I’ve sat in those stands at every CMA Fest until this one. And, now I get to be on the flip side and understand what it feel like to look out and see 65,000 loving, loving, loving country music fans…and that’s awesome.”

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