Carrie Underwood moved the audience at the 2018 CMA Awards with her performance of "Love Wins." The song comes from Underwood's new album, Cry Prettyand was co-written by Underwood, David Garcia and Brett James.

Introduced by Paisley as "my great friend and host," Underwood appeared onstage sporting a form-fitting blue satin dress with a cape lined with colorful fabric. Throughout the performance, she made dramatic arcs and gestures with it, adding dramatic flourishes.

Behind her were equally dramatic videos with paint splashes, explosions and computerized colored graphics. Underwood matched these scenes with a typically on-point vocal performance, which found her belting out the song's hopeful lyrics with power and passion.

As the song crested, a choir of people wearing white jackets with paint splashes appeared on the stage around and in the aisles in front of Underwood. As the song ended, footage of the earth drenched in lights appeared on the screen--and everyone ended the performance in unison by making heart shapes with their hands in the air. Appropriately, the crowd rose to their feet for a standing ovation.

Underwood says that "Love Wins" isn't "trying to speak negatively about our world," but rather to "be hopeful and to maybe make somebody stop and think about" how our differences are what make us unique, not what make us bad."

"I feel like we get really caught up in surface things, and I feel like, in this world, we're quick to get angry at each other," she adds. "I personally think that we're all different for a reason. I feel like if you just sit down and talk to somebody who's not like you and keep it calm, we can all learn from each other."

In addition to co-hosting Country Music's Biggest Night for the 11th consecutive year, Underwood is also up for Female Vocalist of the Year as well as Music Video of the Year at the 2018 CMA Awards. The latter nod is for the video for "Cry Pretty," the first single from and title track of Underwood's latest album, which was released in September.

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