Lainey Wilson performs “Grease” on the 58th annual Academy of Nation Music Awards on Thursday, Could 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, Could 11, 2023, on the Ford Heart in Frisco, Texas.
Chris Pizzello/AP
FRISCO, Texas — Lainey Wilson was seemingly in every single place on the Academy of Nation Music Awards, accumulating 4 trophies on an evening that noticed Chris Stapleton win the entertainer of the yr 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 yr for Bell Backside Nation, accepting the glory barely breathless after performing her tune “Grease.”
Wilson referred to as the album a “labor of affection” and mentioned she wrote 300 songs throughout the pandemic. She mentioned folks usually inform her how a lot the album means to their lives, and she or he mentioned writing them “saved mine.”
When she gained feminine artist of the yr, co-host Dolly Parton handed her the trophy. “I can not consider I simply met Dolly Parton, to begin with,” Wilson mentioned.
She gave credit score to the feminine artists who preceded her and the sacrifices she knew they’d 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 laborious 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 night time, successful the ACMs’ prime 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, Could 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, Could 11, 2023, on the Ford Heart in Frisco, Texas.
Chris Pizzello/AP
“I’m shocked, actually,” Stapleton mentioned. “By any conceivable metric, I do not deserve this. … I’ve by no means considered myself as any individual who would win this award.”
He devoted the award to his youngsters at residence, saying they sacrifice quite a lot of time with him and his spouse due to his profession.
Breathless moments weren’t unusual throughout the performance-heavy present. Cole Swindell gained the night time’s first award, tune of the yr, for “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.” He had simply carried out the tune with Jo Dee Messina.
Swindell later gained single of the yr for a similar tune. “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 consider within the tune, which references home violence and looking for revenge.
“This was a tune about actual life,” Wilson mentioned. “I did not need folks to narrate to this tune, however quite a lot of them do.”
Outdated Dominion frontman Matthew Ramsey used the band’s win for group of the yr to deal with latest divisiveness and gun violence. He referenced the celebration ambiance of the present however mentioned he additionally acknowledged that “there are folks clearly hurting on the earth proper now making an attempt to determine methods to 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 celebration 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 simple 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 tune from her upcoming rock album.
A later routine concerned the pair video conferencing with Willie Nelson to want him blissful birthday. The nation legend 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 situation of the present, his tune “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 celebrity did not carry out as deliberate attributable to a vocal wire damage that is halted his tour and was not in attendance when he gained greatest male artist. Brooks took off his hat to honor Wallen, saying lacking out on the present “should be killing him.”
Hailey Whitters and Zach Bryan have gained greatest new artist honors.
