The annual Country Music Association Awards show will mark its 39th anniversary next year by leaving its home base of Nashville, Tenn., for the first time. The nationally televised ceremony will be held Nov. 15, 2005 in Madison Square Garden in New York, CMA and city officials announced Tuesday at a Manhattan press conference.

This is one of Country Music biggest event. "This is a huge coup for New York," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday, wearing an off-white Stetson. "This will not only strengthen country music's worldwide recognition, but will also showcase New York to a whole new audience."

This year´s CMA Awards will take place at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Nov. 9, and a CMA spokeswoman said Tuesday that the show will return to Nashville in 2006. The annual event traditionally has been held in the Grand Ole Opry House, but the 2006 show will be held at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville.