The saying goes that everything is bigger in Texas, and this year’s ACM Awards went big on starpower and hit songs.
Hosted by Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton, this year’s show offered collaborations galore, such as the stirring, female camaraderie anthem “Bonfire at Tina’s,” from Ashley McBryde, Caylee Hammack, Brandy Clark and Pillbox Patti, and the Lainey Wilson/Jelly Roll collab on Jelly Roll’s “Save Me” (followed by Wilson’s own sizzling solo rendition of “Grease”), but also heartfelt solo performances from artists including Miranda Lambert (“Carousel”) and Jordan Davis (“Next Thing You Know”).
It also cemented the impact of several rising artists and some of the genre’s most-performed songs. The show was held at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, and livestreamed via Amazon Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch.
HARDY, Lainey Wilson, Cole Swindell and Chris Stapleton were among the big winners during the evening, with Stapleton scooping entertainer of the year. Wilson, HARDY and Swindell each won multiple honors — among them, Wilson’s wins for album and female artist, Swindell’s trophies for song and single of the year (both for “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” which interpolates the 1996 Jo Dee Messina hit “Heads Carolina, Tails California”) and HARDY’s honors for artist-writer of the year and music event of the year (the latter for “wait in the truck” with Wilson). Meanwhile, Stapleton took home his first ACM entertainer of the year honor.
Here, Billboard looks at some of the evening’s top moments:
