Singer Lainey Wilson was seemingly everywhere at the Academy of Country Music Awards, performing twice and collecting four trophies on a night that saw Chris Stapleton named entertainer of the year.
Wilson gave back-to-back performances and delivered heartfelt speeches after her wins, which put her next to fellow winners and country music legends.
She won album of the year for “Bell Bottom Country,” accepting the honour slightly breathless after performing her song “Grease.”
Wilson called the album a “labour of love” and said she wrote 300 songs during the pandemic. She said people often tell her how much the album means to their lives, and she said writing them “saved mine.”
When she won female artist of the year, co-host Dolly Parton handed her the trophy.
Wilson gave credit to the female artists who preceded her and the sacrifices she knew they’d made: “I’m up here because of y’all. Because of people like Dolly Parton, paving the way.”
Stapleton owned the stage at the end of the night, winning the top honour.
“I am shocked, truly,” Stapleton said. “By any imaginable metric, I don’t deserve this. … I’ve never thought of myself as somebody who would win this award.”
He dedicated the award to his children at home, saying they sacrifice a lot of time with him and his wife because of his career.
Breathless moments weren’t uncommon during the performance-heavy show. Cole Swindell won the night’s first award, song of the year, for “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.” He had just performed the song with Jo Dee Messina.
Swindell later won single of the year for the same song.
Singer-songwriter HARDY entered the show as the leading nominee and collected four awards. “Wait in the Truck,” his duet with Wilson, who was the second-leading nominee, won the music event award.
“Thank you Lainey, you absolutely killed it,” HARDY said. He credited her with making people believe in the song, which references domestic violence and seeking revenge.
Old Dominion frontman Matthew Ramsey used the band’s win for group of the year to address recent divisiveness and gun violence. He said he recognised that “there are people obviously hurting in the world right now trying to figure out how to make sense of the divisiveness and shootings and things like that.”
Garth Brooks and Parton hosted the two-hour awards show, streamed live from the Ford Centre at the Star in Frisco.
Parton closed out the show with a performance of a song from her upcoming rock album.
A later routine involved the pair video conferencing with Willie Nelson to wish him happy birthday. The country legend recently turned 90, and the ACMs honoured him with a performance of Nelson’s hit with Waylon Jennings, “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys” by Cody Johnson.
The show opened with Keith Urban performing, fittingly given the location of the show, his song “Texas Time.”
Hailey Whitters and Zach Bryan have won best new artist honours.
Australian Associated Press