Lainey Wilson performs “Grease” on the 58th annual Academy of Nation Music Awards on Thursday, Might 11, 2023, on the Ford Heart in Frisco, Texas.
Chris Pizzello/AP
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Lainey Wilson performs “Grease” on the 58th annual Academy of Nation Music Awards on Thursday, Might 11, 2023, on the Ford Heart in Frisco, Texas.
Chris Pizzello/AP
FRISCO, Texas — Lainey Wilson was seemingly in all places on the Academy of Nation Music Awards, accumulating 4 trophies on an evening that noticed Chris Stapleton win the entertainer of the 12 months honor.
Wilson carried out twice Thursday –- back-to-back –- and delivered heartfelt speeches after her wins, which put her subsequent to fellow winners and nation music legends.
She gained album of the 12 months for Bell Backside Nation, accepting the distinction barely breathless after performing her track “Grease.”
Wilson known as the album a “labor of affection” and mentioned she wrote 300 songs through the pandemic. She mentioned folks typically inform her how a lot the album means to their lives, and he or she mentioned writing them “saved mine.”
When she gained feminine artist of the 12 months, co-host Dolly Parton handed her the trophy. “I can not imagine I simply met Dolly Parton, initially,” Wilson mentioned.
She gave credit score to the feminine artists who preceded her and the sacrifices she knew that they had all made: “I am up right here due to y’all. Due to folks like Dolly Parton, paving the best way.”
“For the little women watching this, this stands for exhausting work,” Wilson mentioned, referencing her trophy. “If you are going to be a dreamer, you higher be a do-er.”
Stapleton owned the stage on the finish of the evening, profitable the ACMs’ high honor.
Hosts Garth Brooks, left, and Dolly Parton converse on stage with a goat on the 58th annual Academy of Nation Music Awards on Thursday, Might 11, 2023, on the Ford Heart in Frisco, Texas.
Chris Pizzello/AP
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Hosts Garth Brooks, left, and Dolly Parton converse on stage with a goat on the 58th annual Academy of Nation Music Awards on Thursday, Might 11, 2023, on the Ford Heart in Frisco, Texas.
Chris Pizzello/AP
“I’m shocked, actually,” Stapleton mentioned. “By any possible metric, I do not deserve this. … I’ve by no means considered myself as any person who would win this award.”
He devoted the award to his kids at dwelling, saying they sacrifice a number of time with him and his spouse due to his profession.
Breathless moments weren’t unusual through the performance-heavy present. Cole Swindell gained the evening’s first award, track of the 12 months, for “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.” He had simply carried out the track with Jo Dee Messina.
Swindell later gained single of the 12 months for a similar track. “Thanks nation music followers, that is all I’ve ever been,” he mentioned. “I do not know what I ever did to get this lucky.”
Singer-songwriter HARDY entered the present because the main nominee and picked up 4 awards. “Wait within the Truck,” his duet with Wilson, who was the second-leading nominee, gained the music occasion award.
“Thanks Lainey, you completely killed it,” HARDY mentioned. He credited her with making folks imagine within the track, which references home violence and looking for revenge.
“This was a track about actual life,” Wilson mentioned. “I did not need folks to narrate to this track, however a number of them do.”
Outdated Dominion frontman Matthew Ramsey used the band’s win for group of the 12 months to deal with latest divisiveness and gun violence. He referenced the get together environment of the present however mentioned he additionally acknowledged that “there are folks clearly hurting on this planet proper now attempting to determine make sense of the divisiveness and shootings and issues like that.”
Ramsey continued: “We’re most proud to have the ability to make music for those that are hurting proper now. So thanks for together with us within the get together and permitting us to make music for whoever wants it.”
Garth Brooks and Parton hosted the two-hour awards present, streamed reside on Amazon Prime from the Ford Heart on the Star in Frisco.
The straightforward banter between Brooks, in his first internet hosting gig, and Parton carried the present’s early moments. Parton closed out the present with a efficiency of a track from her upcoming rock album.
A later routine concerned the pair video conferencing with Willie Nelson to want him joyful birthday. The nation legend just lately turned 90, and the ACMs honored him with a efficiency of Nelson’s hit with Waylon Jennings, “Mammas Do not Let Your Infants Develop As much as be Cowboys” by Cody Johnson.
The present opened with Keith City performing, fittingly given the placement of the present, his track “Texas Time.”
Texas references and celebrities ran all through the present. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and Corridor of Famer Emmitt Smith introduced the primary award.
HARDY was additionally a nominee as a songwriter for Morgan Wallen’s Sand in my Boots. The nation famous person did not carry out as deliberate as a consequence of a vocal twine harm that is halted his tour and was not in attendance when he gained finest male artist. Brooks took off his hat to honor Wallen, saying lacking out on the present “have to be killing him.”
Hailey Whitters and Zach Bryan have gained finest new artist honors.
