Christian duo for KING + COUNTRY, made up of brothers Luke and Joel Smallbone, performed with Mexican singer-songwriter Carin León at the 2024 CMA Country Christmas special.
Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood hosted this year’s CMA Country Christmas.
The pair returned to host the pre-recorded show, which aired on Tuesday, December 2024. Held at the Belmont Fisher Center in Nashville,Tennessee, this special is the official kick-off to the Christmas season!
Robby Klein / ABC
Performers for CMA Country Christmas were announced during the 2024 CMA Awards broadcast on November 20th.
Cody Johnson, Ashley McBryde, Brittney Spencer, Jon Pardi, CeCe Winans, for KING + COUNTRY, Carin León were all announced as performers!
Of course, the hosts will perform multiple times throughout the night! You can’t have the incredible Trisha Yearwood and Amy Grant host a show and not have them perform!
for KING + COUNTRY team up with Carin León for unique rendition of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
for KING + COUNTRY is known for their unconventional takes on classic songs. For example, their rendition of “Little Drummer Boy” was a huge highlight of the 2019 CMA Country Christmas show.
The duo began their performance playing large drums on stage, very reminiscent of their “Little Drummer Boy” performance. After a long and incredible musical intro, Joel and Luke began singing the classic song in their own signature way.
Carin León showed off his vocal prowess while singing in Spanish, but then joined for KING + COUNTRY in English later on in the song. The rest of the song was full of energy, something we aren’t used to, but we loved every second of it.
“O Come O Come Emmanuel” dates back to the 8th century.
The song is based on “O Antiphons,” a series of liturgical texts chanted in the days leading to Christmas. The hymn’s Latin version, Veni, Veni Emmanuel, was first published in 1710, while its English translation by John Mason Neale emerged in the mid-19th century.
Watch their epic performance of this classic song below.