Wynonna Judd Honors Late Mom Naomi at 2023 CMT Awards 1 Year After Final Appearance: 'You Need to Be Here'

Wynonna Judd is remembering her late mom Naomi Judd at the 2023 CMT Music Awards.

While delivering a moving performance of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" with Ashley McBryde at the awards show in Austin, Texas on Sunday, Wynonna gave a shout-out to Naomi, who died by suicide at 76 in May 2022.

Mid-performance, the 58-year-old country star pointed up and said, "Mama, you need to be here."

"I miss you, and I love you, and I don't understand," added Wynonna.

The performance was especially sentimental, as last year's CMT Music Awards marked Naomi's final public appearance. During the 2022 ceremony, The Judds sang "Love Can Build a Bridge."

Check out PEOPLE's full CMT Awards coverage to get the latest news on country's big night.

Ahead of the 2023 ceremony, Wynonna spoke to Entertainment Tonight on Sunday about her performance with McBryde. "I'm going to use my time to talk to anyone out there who is struggling," she said. "It's an opportunity to help somebody."

"It's a bittersweet time," continued the musician, who noted that her granddaughter will celebrate her first birthday later in April. "I've got both agony and ecstasy happening."

In January, Wynonna revealed that she created a new song after Naomi's death while preparing for the second leg of shows for The Judds: The Final Tour, which wrapped in February.

"I just wrote a song called 'Broken and Blessed,' and that's how I feel on this tour," she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "'I'm somewhere between hell and hallelujah' is one of the lines in it."

After reciting some of the lyrics a cappella, she continued: "I struggle. And I think when I struggle, I say it onstage."

While she did not say when the song would be released, she revealed that she is also finding solace with her sister, Ashley Judd.

"I'm an orphan now, and I know that," said Wynonna. "I also have a sister I'm getting close to more so than ever. That's a remarkable thing to have someone in your life that you're so different from, but that you can meet somewhere in the middle, and it works."

Prior to launching The Judds: The Final Tour in October, she spoke with PEOPLE about performing shows following Naomi's death, saying: "Am I going to go home and just get depressed and down, and stay stuck in that? I signed on for this tour because it's like, 'I gotta do something.'"

Despite the death of her mother, Judd expressed that she was ready to take a leap of faith and perform. "I'm looking forward to showing up and walking out onstage," she said, likening her "terrifying jitters" to those felt while preparing to walk down the wedding aisle.

"You're terrified to say, 'I do,' in front of everybody, but you do, and you feel this, 'Ahh,' and you just feel the good stuff. I'm ready to feel the good stuff," she added. "I'm going to walk out on that stage like I know what I'm doing. [The crowd is] going to buy it, or at least some of them will. I'm excited about that."

The 2023 CMT Music Awards are airing live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas on Sunday, April 2 on CBS and Paramount+.