Fans learned to expect the unexpected during the last night of the CMA Music Festival at Nissan Stadium.
Superstar surprises dominated the evening, with the Backstreet Boys, Dwight Yoakam, Thomas Rhett and the Brothers Osborne were among the acts making unexpected appearances on the CMA Fest stage Sunday.
That's not to mention the scheduled headliners, some of the biggest names in the genre.
Here are the highlights from the final night of the CMA Fest.
Luke Bryan didn't want the night to end - neither did fans
You know Luke Bryan means business when he flips his ballcap around backward – a move he swiftly executed at 10 minutes to midnight when he took Nissan Stadium’s stage to close CMA Music Festival.
Bryan kicked off his show with “Country Girl (Shake It for Me),” his current summertime single “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset” and his latest No. 1 “Most People are Good.”
Upon spotting Randy Travis in the audience, Bryan abruptly switched directions. He launched into Travis’ “On the Other Hand,” urging fans to sing along. At the end, he told Travis who was in attendance: “I’ve been wanting to sing to you for a long time, buddy. That was unrehearsed.”
Bryan didn’t know Travis would be present, but that didn’t stop him.
“We might just need to make it a Randy Travis hour,” he said. “How much time do we have?”
Bryan followed up with another of Travis’s hits “Diggin’ Up Bones.”
“It ain’t Sunday night, it’s Monday morning,” Bryan told fans as the time ticked well past midnight.
Bryan asked for the house lights to be turned off and for fans to light up the stadium with their cell phones for “Light It Up.”
“This is your song on a Monday morning,” he said leading into “Play It Again.” “That’s the best that song has ever sounded,” he added as the stadium full of fans sang along.
As the clock neared 1 a.m., Bryan picked up the pace. He was all smiles and swiveling hips and hit after sing-along hit.
“This wasn’t on the set list but it is now,” he said, launching into “That’s My Kind of Night.”
“I’m just getting warmed up, I’m telling you,” he said. “Who’s feeling frisky?”
“Rain is a Good Thing” flowed into “I Don’t Want This Night to End.”
Cole Swindell joined Bryan on the show’s closer “Rollercoaster,” a No. 1 hit for Bryan that Swindell and his producer Michael Carter penned.
Bryan and Swindell swapped lines.
“Give it up for Luke Bryan,” Swindell said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without him.”
“Give it up for Cole,” Bryan replied. “Give it up for my band. Thank you, CMA Fest.”
Dierks Bentley: Why hasn't he won entertainer of the year?
So, why hasn’t Dierks Bentley won entertainer of the year?
Bentley turned in the performance of CMA Music Festival Sunday night. The singer brought a shot of energy, passion, hits and special guests to Nissan Stadium about 10 p.m. During a time when the festival is sometimes winding down, the “Woman, Amen” set a new bar.
Bentley has a lot to celebrate. The singer, 15 No. 1 hits to his credit, released new album “The Mountain” on Friday. A mesh of his bluegrass roots and contemporary country style, “The Mountain” is home to “Woman, Amen” as well as “Burning Man,” his duet with Brothers Osborne – both of which he played.
“I want to celebrate these women tonight,” Bentley said, setting up “Woman, Amen.” “I want the guys to sing to me, just the guys.”
Bentley surprised fans with Brothers Osborne on “Burning Man,” a feat since the duo played Bonnaroo’s main stage earlier in the day. Not fatigued, the duo stormed the stage and John Osborne’s electric guitar seared the night air.
Brothers Osborne wasn’t the only shocker. Dwight Yoakam stunned fans when he walked out to join Bentley on “Fast as You,” a song Yoakam popularized in the ‘90s.
During the song, a smile stretched across Bentley’s face as he emphatically strummed his guitar and bounced up and down.
He pointed at the singer and mouthed: “That’s Dwight Yoakam.”
“I got goosebumps all over my body,” Bentley said. “This is the best CMA Fest of my life. I can’t believe that just happened. I need a drink. I need to calm down. This is crazy.”
Bentley didn’t exclude fan favorites, either. He kicked off with “I Hold On,” prompting the loudest sing-along from fans of the stadium shows, and slid in “Somewhere on a Beach.”
Florida Georgia Line brings famous friends to the stage for a crowd-pleasing set
Sets at the CMA Fest tend to be tightly choreographed machines. But for a little while on Sunday night, Florida Georgia Line managed to make the stage at Nissan Stadium into a front porch.
Considering the fact that their signature song is about leaning back for a "Cruise," maybe that shouldn't have been a surprise.
That's not to say it was stripped down — FGL maintained their reputation as the loudest band of the night. But the way famous friends came and went for high-wattage duets was strikingly loose, like a garage band jam session.
Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley might have gotten the loudest cheers of the night for their introductions. The Backstreet Boys, Bebe Rexha and Morgan Wallen were all called to the stage to trade verses with FGL.
None of them were on the schedule. All of them triggered stadium-wide singalongs.
The highlight of the set might have been the mega-hit "Meant To Be," which gave Rexha — the only female to hit the stage Sunday — the chance to show off some crystalline high-notes.
But the crowd was undeniably there for the fellas from FGL. When the band left the stage, they thanked the fans for changing their lives. The crowd roared in approval.
Brett Eldredge loves everyone
Brett Eldredge started his day at the dog park with his chocolate lab Edgar and 300 of his biggest fans. Then he finished it with a set at Nissan Stadium with tens of thousands more.
Eldredge, perfectly coiffed and clad in a white denim jacket, brought his pitch-perfect voice and a summer’s worth of excitement to the stage, launching his set with new single “Love Someone.”
“This is the perfect time of year for that kind of song," Eldredge said. "It's one of those songs you don't have to really think about it. I guarantee it's going to put a smile on your face. It's going to make you feel good. It's going to make you want to listen to it on a boat. It's one of those songs that captures love in its simplest form."
Eldredge followed up with his most recent hit, a tender love ballad, “The Long Way.”
“Nashville, it has been an incredible journey getting to this stage,” he said, remembering once playing the festival for about 30 people. “This is the best feeling in the world.”
When he asked fans if they were ready for the week to be over, they screamed: “No.”
“Alright, I think we should pick this party up then,” Eldredge said, setting up “Beat Up of the Music.”
Jumping up and down and spinning in circles, the singer kicked off “Lose My Mind” and followed with “Drunk on Your Love.”
He closed his set with “I Wanna Be that Song,” the stadium swathed in the glow of cell phone lights and fans sang along.
Cole Swindell has five minutes - captivates stadium
Cole Swindell was only promised one song in Nissan Stadium Sunday night, and he made the most of it.
Swindell will release his third album "All of It" Aug. 17. While ballads aren't always durable stadium fare, the singer took the opportunity to tout his new favorite. Swindell's current single "Break Up in the End" is both a break-up song and a love story.
"I knew the first time I heard it, how it made me feel," Swindell said. "I had to record it. I love to write my own songs, but we've got the best songwriters right here in Nashville. I knew if recorded it, it would hit other people the same way it hit me. I lived it."
Hours later, Swindell remerged for another CMA highlight -- he joined Luke Bryan on stage to end the festival with "Rollercoaster."