Ashley Cooke shared the handwritten note she received from fellow award-winning artist Carly Pearce.

Cooke shared a photo of the flowers and the note she received from Pearce on her Instagram story on Monday (April 15). Pearce wrote: “Breakthrough Video for the most deserving! SO happy for all your success. You deserve it!! Love, Carly Pearce.”

The note comes shortly after Cooke won her first-ever award in the Breakthrough Female Video of the Year category at the 2024 CMT Music Awards, hosted earlier this month at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Cooke won for “your place,” a song she told iHeartCountry on the red carpet is “about understanding and regaining your power in a relationship sense and knowing your worth. I think it’s a really important message to have, and also kind of like an ‘F you’ song to my ex, so it kind of is Inspirational and also a very good revenge song. So, I’m very happy people are loving it.”

Pearce won in the Collaborative Video of the Year category that evening, for her heartache duet with Chris Stapleton, “We Don’t Fight Anymore.” The ballad appears on her forthcoming full-length album, hummingbird, due in June. Pearce also won in the CMT Music Awards Breakthrough Video of the Year category in 2018 for “Every Little Thing.” She’s the latest country artist to extend a sweet gesture to a fellow star after the awards show. Lainey Wilson also sent a bouquet of flowers and a congratulatory message to Kelsea Ballerini, who returned to host the show and took the stage that evening.

The full lineup also included Jason Aldean, Dasha, Bailey Zimmerman, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Little Big Town with Sugarland, Megan Moroney, NEEDTOBREATHE with Jordan Davis, Old Dominion with Megan Moroney, Parker McCollum with Brittney Spencer, Sam Hunt, and Trisha Yearwood, who accepted the first-ever June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award. Brooks & Dunn, Sammy Hagar and Lainey Wilson led a tribute — which also included special appearances by Roger Clemens, Lukas Nelson and Riley Green — late country legend Toby Keith, who died earlier this year after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 62. Keith’s children told iHeartCountry they “purposefully kept ourselves in the dark from rehearsals so that we would be surprised when we say (the tribute) in person. but we know about the performers, and we’re excited (for the performance).”

See the full list of 2024 CMT Music Awards performers here.

The Gator Morning Show