Little Big Town and Ariana Grande Light Up the 2014 CMA Awards With Cross-Genre Collaboration [WATCH]

The CMA Awards are not normally the place for pop music and suggestive dancing, but that changed tonight when Little Big Town and emerging pop superstar Ariana Grande teamed up to present one of the most visually striking performances of the night.

Little Big Town kicked off the collaboration with their latest smash hit, 'Day Drinking.' The band members and about two dozen backup marching drummers all wore color-coordinated black outfits with red neon stripes that blinked off and on throughout the performance.

After an abbreviated version of the song, the neon lights changed to purple, and Grande, who at 21 is barely old enough to do some legal day drinking, came out dressed in a matching light-up skirt. The music switched abruptly to Grande's dance-pop song 'Bang Bang,' which she sang while strutting suggestively across the stage.

Grande showed off the voice that has many comparing her to Mariah Carey, while her new country music friends supplied backing vocals. By the end, the entire crowd was standing, proving that the unusual collaboration had worked.