Taylor Swift will perform at the CMA Awards for the first time since 2013

Taylor Swift will perform at the CMA Awards next week, her first time on that stage in 13 years. The Country Music Association and ABC announced the booking Friday morning.

The appearance itself was expected. When this year's nominations came out, Swift posted on her Instagram Stories, "LOOKS LIKE I HAVEN’T YEE’D MY LAST HAW THANK YOU CMA!!!!" and promised to be there. Until Friday, though, there was no sign she planned to do more than sit in the audience. Organizers still haven't said what she will sing.

The 60th annual CMA Awards air live from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 18, from 8 to 11 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+. The show streams on Hulu the following day. Lainey Wilson hosts for the third year running.

Swift is up for single of the year with "I Knew It, I Knew You," the ballad she wrote with Jack Antonoff for Disney and Pixar's "Toy Story 5." The nod is her 26th career CMA nomination. The song is also her first brand-new track in more than a decade to be promoted as country, and the first of those to top country radio.

A performance that fits an awards campaign

Variety's Chris Willman called it a good bet that her set will include the nominated song, in part or in full. It's hard to see her choosing anything else. The track is being pushed for an Oscar for best original song and was submitted for song of the year at the Grammys. The Hollywood Reporter expects her to be a top Grammy contender for both the song and "The Life of a Showgirl," which came out after last year's eligibility window closed.

The timing helps. Grammy nominations are announced two days before the CMAs, so Swift gets a live, prime-time network slot for the song in the same week its awards prospects are being sized up. A campaign rarely gets a better showcase than that, and it plays to a country audience that already sent the song to No. 1.

The CMA stage also gives the song a credibility a movie soundtrack can't supply on its own. A pop star dropping into country's biggest night for one tune could easily come off as a visit. Swift's history with the show makes that a hard case to argue.

She first attended in 2006, shortly after her self-titled debut album, so this year marks two decades since her first CMA appearance. In 2007 she won the Horizon Award, the category now called new artist of the year. Two years later she became the youngest artist ever named entertainer of the year, a record she still holds. She has won that top prize twice and taken home 11 CMA trophies beyond her first.

Her last performance on the show came in 2013, when she accepted the Pinnacle Award and sang "Red" with Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. That night now looks like an unofficial goodbye to country. Her last appearance of any kind was in 2016, when she walked on unannounced near the end of the broadcast to hand Garth Brooks the entertainer of the year award.

With "1989," Swift made it plain that pop had won out over country, but she kept her ties to Nashville. She returned to the genre's sound on occasion, with the album track "Betty" and "I Bet You Think About Me," a vault duet with Chris Stapleton. "I Knew It, I Knew You" goes further than either. It was released and promoted as a country single, and country radio played it.

Nashville has also been honoring her lately. Last month Brad Paisley inducted her into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In her acceptance speech, Swift credited her ability to jump between genres to "the fundamentals and the foundation that I learned here in Nashville." Coming a few weeks after that ceremony, the CMA performance looks less like a one-off and more like a deliberate reconnection with the city.

A crowded bill and a tough category

Swift joins a lineup that is already long. Ella Langley, who leads this year's field with nine nominations, is set to perform, along with Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Kacey Musgraves, the Red Clay Strays, Zach Top, Tucker Wetmore, Luke Combs, Gill, Megan Moroney, Stapleton, Wilson and Stephen Wilson Jr. Mumford & Sons will make their CMA debut.

Two tribute segments are planned. Brothers Osborne, Luke Bryan, Halestorm, Hardy and Marcus King will salute Brooks & Dunn, this year's recipients of the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. A tribute to Dolly Parton is also on the schedule, though its performers haven't been named. There had been talk that Swift might take part in that set, but Rolling Stone said it confirmed she won't.

Winning may be harder than performing. Langley has two nominations in single of the year, and so does Lambert, who holds the record for most CMA nominations by a female artist with 70. Johnson is in the category as well. Swift's song has the radio success and the soundtrack exposure, but against voters with this many homegrown options, the nomination may be the main prize.

She will have more awards business soon. The Hollywood Reporter has named her the recipient of its Sherry Lansing Leadership Award, which she will accept at the outlet's Women in Entertainment gala.

One detail on the bill deserves attention. Gill, her duet partner on "Red" 13 years ago, is performing too. Nothing has been announced that would bring them back together, but that would be a fitting way to close a 13-year gap.