25. Chrissy Metz, featuring Lauren Alaina, Mickey Guyton, Maddie & Tae, and Carrie Underwood, "I'm Standing With You" The star wattage of Metz's collaborators wasn't enough to make up for the lead singer's inexperience -- this was her singing debut -- or her clear nervousness onstage. 24. Blake Shelton, "God's Country" 23. George Strait, "God and Country Music" While the title of the two songs may be similar, even if their themes aren't, what truly brought them together in many minds tonight was in their onstage productions making many wonder if they were watching ads for Ford trucks. 22. Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line, "Can't Hide Red" 21. Luke Bryan, "Knockin' Boots" Both songs are almost guaranteed to be two of the biggest country hits of 2019, but the lackluster lyrics paired with the lackluster performances gave hints to why the acts involved may need to worry about the newer talents starting to emerge on the country scene, and all are hungry for the spots that the veterans currently hold. 20. Brooks & Dunn and Luke Combs, "Brand New Man" 19. Maren Morris and Brothers Osborne, "All My Favorite People" Both of these performances shared a common trait with many of the special duets featured on Sunday night, in that - whether there wasn't enough time to rehearse as needed, or there were technical difficulties that only appeared once live - all offered poor sound mixes or missed cues that soured moments that may have otherwise been winners. 18. Jason Aldean, "Lights Come On"/"Don't You Wanna Stay" (with Kelly Clarkson)/ "Dirt Road Anthem" Medley A medley of hits to celebrate Aldean's being named the ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade, the segment largely felt flat. Whether this was due to how long the show had been on by the time this segment aired, or just the fact that better performances surrounded it, who can say? 17. Miranda Lambert, "Kerosene"/"Gunpowder & Lead"/"Mama's Broken Heart"/"White Liar"/"Little Red Wagon" Medley 16. Dan + Shay with Kelly Clarkson, "Keeping Score" The next two entries all managed to do one aspect of Aldean's segment better, in that Lambert's electrifying performance encapsulates what one hopes for in an awards show medley, and Clarkson's appearance beside the young duo of Dan + Shay featured the vocalists all connecting with each other in a way that uplifted the entire moment. 15. George Strait and Miranda Lambert, "Run" 14. George Strait, "Every Little Honky Tonk Bar" The legendary Strait was all over tonight's ACM Awards, a welcome presence for those in the audience who may have wanted for a more traditional country feel to the night's proceedings. While the duet with Lambert was fantastic, both it and the telecast's closing number had a sense of safety to them, in that perhaps better song choices were left behind in favor of a pair that would end up being just fine. 13. Reba McEntire, "Freedom" Tonight's host shifted into performer gear for a rendition of "Freedom," and in doing so became the anti-Strait of the evening, in that she captivated the audience with both a performance and its production. The number featured the lyrics displayed behind McEntire while she sang, and a guitar solo that nodded toward the Hall of Famer not relying on the same sound that she found success harnessing throughout the 80s and 90s. 12. Keith Urban, "Burden" 11. Luke Combs, "Beautiful Crazy" Both performers broke the mold of the average awards show performance by taking the opportunity the night afforded them to create something new out of the familiar. Whereas many use the show to debut a new single, Urban performed a stirring cover of Foy Vance's "Burden," which he stated he isn't sure will even appear on any upcoming releases; instead, he just felt compelled to perform it for anyone facing a particularly hard burden that may have needed the message. For "Crazy," Combs peeled away any overproduction that many would have felt tempted to add for entertainment purposes, and instead performed a stirring version of the hit single. Featuring Amanda Shires accompanying on fiddle, the arrangement breathed a second life into a song that many would have stated was perfect as is beforehand. 10. Old Dominion, "Make It Sweet" 9. Thomas Rhett, "Look What God Gave Her" For two acts that have quickly made a name for themselves as new perennial headliners in the past calendar year, both Old Dominion and Rhett took the same approach to their performances tonight, in that they left the staid moments to others and just offered the audience a little fun in the form of songs featuring infectious lyrics that bring a smile to any face. 8. Kane Brown, "Good As You"/"Saturday Nights" (with Khalid) Brown's time onstage at the ACMs was a portrait in contrasts, as his collaboration with R&B star Khalid featured the young country performer looking lost at times, and seemingly content to merely smile while watching his collaborator take the spotlight. What kept this moment from being ranked lower was Brown's "Good As You," which saw the singer look more comfortable in front of the cameras than ever before, and may rate as the moment when he became a true superstar within the country genre. 7. Little Big Town, "The Daughters" The latest single from the country group had already been building buzz online in the days preceding the ACM telecast, but many radio personnel will have gone to bed on Sunday night knowing that their work week would begin tomorrow with an avalanche of calls asking about the song, as few debuts have had the visible impact that "Daughters" had tonight on those listening in the audience. It already feels like the type of song where its lyrics will soon be requested in tattoo shops around the country. 6. Chris Stapleton, "A Simple Song" Stapleton has reached the point in his career where a masterful performance, like the one he had tonight, begins to feel a little mediocre just due to the many great awards show performances that precede it on his resume.<doc-sep>While it’s a much-discussed topic in country music these days, it’s never a good sign when the ACMs’ own host calls out the glaring lack of women featured in the show: “Did you know it snowed in Las Vegas just a few weeks ago? It was so cold it froze us women out of entertainer of the year,” Reba said dryly at the top of the broadcast, drawing “ooohhhs” from the crowd. The all-male categories were highlighted even further when only two women accepted prizes onstage the entire night: Kacey Musgraves, who won two awards, and Nicolle Galyon, who co-wrote Dan + Shay’s “Tequila.”<doc-sep>Country music royalty turned out in force on Sunday for a glittering night of live performances and honors at the 54th annual Academy of Country Music Awards. The show’s host, Reba McEntire — her record 16th time in the job — wasted no time in addressing one of the evening’s touchy subjects: the lack of women nominees in some top categories. Noting recent snow in Las Vegas, where the awards were held in a live, performance-heavy broadcast, McEntire said, “It was so cold it froze us women out of entertainer of the year.” Kacey Musgraves, the winner of four Grammy Awards this year, including album of the year for “Golden Hour,” was absent from the all-male list of nominees in the show’s top category.<doc-sep>The 54th ACM Awards on Sunday night felt like a tug of war between country’s old-school traditions and its progressive future, resulting in some truly engaging performances. Others, however, struggled to find their footing, while some moments left us with head-scratching questions — like why were two of country and Americana’s most talented musicians performing in near obscurity? And why wasn’t Kacey Musgraves’ music heard, either live or on tape? Here’s the 13 best, worst and WTF things we witnessed. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock Best: Luke Combs Is Mr. Versatile Luke Combs was one of just a select few performers (George Strait, Ashley McBryde, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood) to perform multiple times on Sunday evening. In both instances, Combs showed why he’s one of the genre’s most promising young voices, displaying his versatility as he alternated between sensitive balladry during his stripped down, Amanda Shires-assisted rendition of “Beautiful Crazy” shortly before belting out a loose, thrilling take of 1991’s “Brand New Man” alongside Brooks & Dunn. Though he didn’t win any on-screen awards, Combs’ two-for-two success left him with one of the impressions of the night. J.B. Kevin Winter/Getty Images Worst: Charlie Worsham, Amanda Shires Are Heard, Barely Seen It was a superb treat to have two of Nashville’s finest artists — Amanda Shires and Charlie Worsham — unexpectedly take the stage last night, alongside Luke Combs and Keith Urban, respectively. Playing fiddle for Combs’ performance of “Beautiful Crazy,” Shires helped transform the song with her lyrical playing while Worsham, fresh from filling out the house band at last week’s Loretta Lynn birthday tribute, added some masterful guitar to Urban’s rendition of Foy Vance’s “Burden.” It was a perfect opportunity to introduce both Shires and Worsham to even larger audiences, but there was just one problem: the ACMs didn’t bother to announce either of them. As a member of the Highwomen with performers Brandi Carlile and Maren Morris (and ACM winner Natalie Hemby) and winner of 2017’s Emerging Artist of the Year at 2017’s Americana Honors & Awards, it is an understatement to say that Shires deserved to be introduced right alongside Combs. Same for Worsham, who should have been nominated for an ACM himself for 2017’s Beginning of Things. It was thrilling to see and hear them in the fold last night (well, almost see them — Worsham was mostly in the shadows), but the ACMs should have given them the acknowledgement they deserve. M.M. Kevin Winter/Getty Images WTF: Eric Church’s Hooded Choir Eric Church and Ashley McBryde teaming up to sing-speak Church’s political allegory “The Snake” was one of the ballsiest and best performances of the ACMs. Here were two of country music’s most important songwriters trading lines about deceit, divisiveness and temptation in a typically safe-as-milk forum, with Church relishing the devilish delivery of his Garden of Eden line: “I bet you my rattle against your copper that the bitch takes the apple again.” Still, we couldn’t help but purge visions of Spinal Tap when a hooded choir (Were they druids? Monks? Sorcerers?) materialized to lend some ominous backing vocals at song’s end. To quote Tap’s “Stonehenge,” no one knows who they were or what they were doing. J.H. Kevin Winter/Getty Images Best: Brandi Carlile Makes Her ACMs Debut It’s already been a triumphant year for Brandi Carlile, who wowed viewers with her performance of “The Joke” at the 61st annual Grammy Awards back in February. No stranger to unorthodox performances, Dierks Bentley seemed to want to prolong Carlile’s victory lap, inviting her to join him for a performance of their 2018 The Mountain deep cut “Travelin’ Light.” Carlile — who was also spotted joyfully singing along to Brooks & Dunn’s “Brand New Man” — served as the perfect counterpoint to Bentley, framing his gruff drawl with her flawless vocal acrobatics. With forthcoming projects like the Highwomen and production work for Tanya Tucker, this could be Carlile’s first ACM Awards of many. B.M. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/Shutterstock Best: Dan + Shay Win Big, Play Nice Sometimes, the nice, hard-working guys win one. Or, in this case, three. Following a monster year that contained at least one monster hit in “Tequila,” the duo of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney cleaned up in the first half of the ACM Awards. “Tequila,” which is still hovering near the top of the Hot Country Songs chart a full year later, was named Song and Single of the Year, while Dan + Shay managed to edge out their friendly competition Brothers Osborne to win their first ACM Vocal Duo of the Year honor. Not to belabor the whole “nice” thing, but Smyers actually took time during one of his speeches to thank by name all the session musicians who helped make “Tequila” sound so potent. Now tell us the last time you heard another performer do that. J.F. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock Worst: Luke Bryan’s Oversized “Boots” Despite simpleton lyrics like “doors need shutting,” Luke Bryan’s latest single “Knockin’ Boots” isn’t terrible. In fact, it’s rather appealing, thanks to its inherent goofiness. The same can be said of Bryan’s charm, but his performance went overboard with Wayne Newton-like smarm. Drawing the unfortunate slot of following Miranda Lambert’s exciting medley of her hits, Bryan mugged his way through “Knockin’ Boots,” embracing a performing style that seemed to consist of “sing line, smile big, repeat.” Or as Woody Allen preached in Broadway Danny Rose: “Star Smile Strong.” Such grand grins and gestures usually work for TV, but in this case, Bryan’s “Boots” were too big. J.H. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/Shutterstock Best: Little Big Town Champion the Daughters Nashville has made some puddle-deep attempts to offer their own version of the “female empowerment” anthem and, so far, generally missed the mark, Keith Urban’s “Female” and Florida Georgia Line’s “Women” among the worst offenders. But that tide is changing: first with Maren Morris’ “Girl” and now Little Big Town’s “Daughters,” which the quartet performed for the first time last night surrounded by a young girl’s dance troupe.<doc-sep>
Kacey Musgraves arrives for the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards (CNN) — The 54th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards were presented Sunday in Las Vegas. Country superstar Reba McEntire hosted for a record-breaking 16th time and she had jokes. The singer/sitcom star talked about the fact it recently snowed in Las Vegas. “It was so cold it froze us women out of entertainer of the year,” she quipped. McEntire also joked about some of the more unique duets out there, teasing that she and Cardi B would be doing a song titled, “There’s No ‘U’ in Oklahoma and That’s Okuurrrtt with Me,” using the rapper’s now-famous catch phrase. Florida Georgia Line opened the show with Jason Aldean, performing their song “Can’t Hide Red.” Aldean was presented the ACM Dick Clark artist of the decade award. “This Is Us” star Chrissy Metz made her live performance singing debut on the show with a song from her new film, “Breakthrough.” The actress perfomed the movie’s anthem, “I’m Standing With You,” joined by singers Carrie Underwood, Lauren Alaina, Mickey Guyton and Maddie & Tae. Other performers throughout the night included Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Blake Shelton, Maren Morris and Keith Urban. Dan + Shay were among the early winners, with their hit “Tequila” scoring song of the year. They went on to also win single record of the year and duo of the year. Below is a full list of nominees with winners indicated with *WINNER in bold. Entertainer of the Year Jason Aldean Luke Bryan Kenny Chesney Chris Stapleton Keith Urban *WINNER Male Artist of the Year Dierks Bentley Luke Combs Thomas Rhett *WINNER Chris Stapleton Keith Urban Female Artist of the Year Miranda Lambert Ashley McBryde Maren Morris Kacey Musgraves *WINNER Carrie Underwood Duo of the Year Brothers Osborne Dan + Shay *WINNER Florida Georgia Line LoCash Maddie & Tae Group of the Year Lady Antebellum Lanco Little Big Town Midland Old Dominion *WINNER New Female Artist of the Year Danielle Bradbery Lindsay Ell Ashley McBryde *WINNER Carly Pearce New Male Artist of the Year Jimmie Allen Luke Combs *WINNER Jordan Davis Michael Ray Mitchell Tenpenny New Duo or Group of the Year High Valley Lanco *WINNER Runaway June Album of the Year “Dan + Shay,” Dan + Shay “Desperate Man,” Eric Church “From A Room, Vol. 2,” Chris Stapleton “Golden Hour,” Kacey Musgraves *WINNER “The Mountain,” Dierks Bentley Single Record of the Year “Down to the Honkytonk,” Jake Owen “Heaven,” Kane Brown “Meant to Be,” Bebe Rexha feat. Florida Georgia Line “Most People Are Good,” Luke Bryan “Tequila,” Dan + Shay *WINNER Video of the Year “Babe,” Sugarland feat. Taylor Swift “Burn Out,” Midland “Burning Man,” Dierks Bentley feat. Brothers Osborne “Drunk Girl,” Chris Janson *WINNER “Shoot Me Straight,” Brothers Osborne “Tequila,” Dan + Shay Song of the Year “Break Up in the End,” Cole Swindell “Broken Halos,” Chris Stapleton “Meant to Be,” Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line “Space Cowboy,” Kacey Musgraves “Tequila,” Dan + Shay *WINNER “Yours,” Russell Dickerson Music Event of the Year “Burning Man,” Dierks Bentley feat. Brothers Osborne *WINNER “Drowns the Whiskey,” Jason Aldean feat. Miranda Lambert “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” David Lee Murphy feat. Kenny Chesney “Keeping Score,” Dan + Shay feat. Kelly Clarkson “Meant to Be,” Bebe Rexha feat. Florida Georgia Line Songwriter of the Year Ross Copperman Ashley Gorley Shane McAnally *WINNER Chase McGill Josh Osborne