'CMA Country Christmas' Host Trisha Yearwood Has a Trick for Battling Stage Fright

Trisha Yearwood might be a country music superstar, but that doesn’t mean that she’s always comfortable in front of a crowd. The 55-year-old singer has confessed to having some jitters about hosting the 2019 CMA Country Christmas. But fortunately, she had a strategy for coping with pre-show butterflies. 

Yearwood says it’s good to be a little nervous 

The “How Do I Live” singer says that even as a seasoned performer, she still gets nervous — and that’s not a bad thing. 

“I think a little nervousness is good,” Yearwood told PopCulture.com, adding, “You think everyone’s going to figure out, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing.’ There’s that moment where you do what you do, that you think, ‘Do I really know and why am I here?’”

“I think that that little voice is always in my head a little bit,” she went on to say.  “But I also do have a supreme kind of confidence in that I do know how to sing.”

How she battles stage fright  

When Yearwood finds herself getting nervous before a show, she has a tried-and-true coping mechanism: Find someone who’s more on edge than she is. 

“And it’s been interesting that the thing that has helped me not be so nervous is especially on a show like this, to pick out someone younger than me who’s more nervous than me and go up to them and make them not be nervous,” she said. “And that helps me. They don’t realize that it’s helping me.”

Yearwood added that despite being an entertainer, she’s an introvert. But she says her Food Network show Trisha’s Southern Kitchen actually helped her become more at ease with performing. 

“[T]he cooking show has really helped me because it’s not scripted … I think I can be good on my feet that way just because I’ve done it a lot on the cooking show, that whole show is pretty much by the seat of your pants,” she said.  

Who’s performing at this year’s ‘CMA Country Christmas’?

CMA Country Christmas is a long-running holiday tradition, but this is Yearwood’s first year as host. She’ll also perform several songs, including “Children Go Where I Send Thee” with Kristen Chenoweth, CeCe Winans, Tori Kelly, and Hillary Scott. 

A host of other top musical artists will also take the stage, including Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts, Runaway June, For King & Country, Chris Janson, Brett Young, and Chris Young. They’ll offer their interpretations of beloved holiday tunes like “White Christmas,” “Run, Run Rudolph,” “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Deck the Halls,” and “Feliz Navidad.” 

“Music, memories and enjoying the season with loved ones are what make Christmastime so special,” Yearwood said in a statement. “Hosting CMA Country Christmas is an opportunity to share joy and celebrate the holidays with friends and family everywhere.”

CMA Country Christmas airs Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 9/8c on ABC. 

Read more: Trisha Yearwood’s Sweet Gesture For Her Late Mother

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