Induction:
Medallion Ceremony
Congratulations, Hall of Fame Class of 2026
Members-elect Paul Overstreet, Tim McGraw, and the Stanley Brothers will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday, October 18. This honor is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of country music through their efforts in both the creative and business communities. New members, elected annually by an anonymous panel of voters chosen by the Country Music Association (CMA), are formally inducted in the invitation-only Medallion Ceremony held in the Museum’s CMA Theater.
About the Medallion Ceremony
Election to the Country Music Hall of Fame is the genre’s highest honor. To fittingly recognize those elected to this eminent mark of distinction, the Museum created the Medallion Ceremony. An annual event produced by the staff of the Museum, the Medallion Ceremony formally inducts and celebrates the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The first Medallion Ceremony took place in September 1999 at the Executive Residence of Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist. Thereafter, the ceremonies took place each year at various locations, including at the original Museum on Music Row, until the new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum building opened with a venue, the Ford Theater, created specifically to accommodate the Medallion Ceremony. The ceremonies continued to be held in the Ford Theater until October 2014, when they moved to the Museum’s new CMA Theater.
From the start, the invitation-only event was created and intended to be an intimate affair that would not be televised or broadcast. Instead, it is a private gathering of the honorees’ relatives and friends, Museum supporters, and the music community. During the Medallion Ceremony, artists and songwriters perform songs in tribute to the incoming members, and a Hall of Fame member formally inducts the new members with celebratory remarks and the conferring of a commemorative medallion to be worn each time the membership gathers.
Bronze plaques bearing the inductees’ likenesses are unveiled for the first time during the ceremony before they are installed permanently in the Museum’s Rotunda. The ceremony concludes with everyone singing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”