Tenille Arts on 'Emotional' Experience of Performing at the 2021 CMT Music Awards (Exclusive)

The country singer gushed about her emotional performance and her first red carpet and in-person awards show.

Tenille Arts is opening up about returning to the stage for the first time since the pandemic. Arts spoke to ET's Cassie DiLaura ahead of Wednesday night's 2021 CMT Music Awards where she shared that the awards show marks her first red carpet and first awards show as a country music star.

"This is actually my very first awards show and first full carpet, so I am freaking out. I'm so excited," Arts gushed. "I've already run into so many people that I've been looking up to and just haven't been able to meet because everything happened during the pandemic, so just being able to see the people from Lady A that I'm going out with on tour this summer, it's just so great to see everybody."

The Canadian-born singer shared that she anticipated her return to the stage will be an emotional one, not just at the CMT Music Awards, but all summer long as she heads out on tour with Lady A.

"I think it's gonna be super emotional because my single went number one during a pandemic, I didn't like, get to see the climb of it, so every single time I perform that song now, it's just super emotional," Arts told ET. "Even if it's a writer's round, I'm just super emotional, so I'm sure that's gonna continue all summer long."

Arts performed her track "Somebody Like That" at the awards show, wearing her favorite accessory of all -- sparkles.

"I have really been diving into color lately, so we've got a lot of sparkles tonight and I'm really excited for everybody to see my performance look as well," she shared. "This dress is like, a hundred pounds, I'm not kidding. But it was so much fun. I'm like, 'I'm not complaining at all, this is so great.'"

Arts, who was styled for the night by Krista Roser, revealed that the blue-and-black sequined strapless dress, designed by LBV, was held up by an entire corset that helped keep the heavy dress together. 

For more of the artist's sparkling CMT Music Awards look, check out the gallery below.

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