Don’t mess with Texas! The 58th Academy of Country Music Awards honors the brightest stars in the genre – and the full list of nominees and winners is jam-packed with celebrity names.
The Thursday, May 11, event will be held at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, and cohosted by legendary country music superstars Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks. The duo are relatively new to the gig — this year marks Parton’s second time hosting while Brooks is making his emcee debut — but neither are strangers to the ceremony. The “Jolene” songstress, 77, has won a total of 13 ACMs over the years, while the Oklahoma native has taken home an impressive 22 — six of which were for the night’s most coveted award, Entertainer of the Year. (He was also honored as ACM Artist of the Decade for the ‘90s.)
“The fact that they would even ask is flattering and the fact that I get to host with Ms. Parton is unbelievable,” Brooks, 61, told Billboard in March. “The surprise of the night is you’re gonna see this beautiful woman carry this 260-pound ass all night.”
This year, a number of fan favorite hitmakers are up for the night’s most prestigious trophy including Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood and Morgan Wallen.
Winning Entertainer of the Year for the “Last Night” artist, 29 — who was previously banned from the awards show after TMZ published a video of him saying the N-word in February 2021 — would be a highlight of an otherwise rough few months. The Voice alum was recently forced to cancel a number of concerts — including his scheduled 2023 ACMs performance — due to an injury on his vocal cords.
“After 10 days of vocal rest, I performed three shows last weekend in Florida and by the third one I felt terrible,” the Tennessee native shared via Instagram earlier this month. “So I went in and got scoped yesterday, and they told me that I reinjured my vocal cords and that I have vocal fold trauma. Their advice is that I go on vocal rest for six weeks, so that’s what I’m gonna do.” The “Wasted on You” singer also shared that he “tore up my lat [muscle]” during a show in Australia, adding, “I’ve been trying to work through that quietly, but this time off is gonna help me get that back right as well.”
While Wallen won’t be taking the stage on Thursday, other performers are ready to rock out. Lambert, 39, Aldean, 46, Brown, 29, Combs, 33, Cole Swindell, Keith Urban and Lainey Wilson — who has six nominations and is the second-most nominated act at this year’s ACMs — are just a few of the artists slated to perform. Parton, for her part, will close out the show with the debut of her new single.
“I’m doing my first rock ’n’ roll song, ‘World on Fire,’ which has a great message,” the 9 to 5 star, who was inducted into the Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame in November 2022, told the Los Angeles Times in May. “That’ll hopefully be my moment. But we’re gonna just let it flow. What my heart says do, I do it.”
The 2023 ACM Awards will stream live on Amazon Prime Video on May 11 at 7 p.m. ET. See the full list of ACM Awards nominees and winners below:
Entertainer of the Year
Jason Aldean
Kane Brown
Luke Combs
Miranda Lambert
Chris Stapleton
Carrie Underwood
Morgan Wallen
Female Artist of the Year
Kelsea Ballerini
Miranda Lambert
Ashley McBryde
Carly Pearce
Lainey Wilson
Male Artist of the Year
Kane Brown
Luke Combs
Jordan Davis
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
Duo of the Year
Brooks & Dunn
Brothers Osborne
Dan + Shay
Maddie & Tae
The War and Treaty
Group of the Year
Lady A
Little Big Town
Midland
Old Dominion
Zac Brown Band
New Female Artist of the Year
Priscilla Block
Megan Moroney
Caitlyn Smith
Morgan Wade
Hailey Whitters
New Male Artist of the Year
Zach Bryan
Jackson Dean
ERNEST
Dylan Scott
Nate Smith
Bailey Zimmerman
Album of the Year
Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville by Ashley McBryde
Bell Bottom Country by Lainey Wilson
Growin’ Up by Luke Combs
Mr. Saturday Night by Jon Pardi
Palomino by Miranda Lambert
Single of the Year
“Heart Like a Truck” by Lainey Wilson
“Never Wanted to Be That Girl” by Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde
“She Had Me at Heads Carolina” by Cole Swindell
“Thank God” by Kane Brown with Katelyn Brown
“‘Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson
Song of the Year
“Sand in My Boots” by Morgan Wallen
“She Had Me at Heads Carolina” by Cole Swindell
“‘Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson
“Wait in the Truck” by HARDY featuring Lainey Wilson
“You Should Probably Leave” by Chris Stapleton
Visual Media of the Year
“HEARTFIRST” by Kelsea Ballerini
“She Had Me at Heads Carolina” by Cole Swindell
“Thank God” by Kane Brown with Katelyn Brown
“‘Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson
“Wait in the Truck” by HARDY featuring Lainey Wilson
“What He Didn’t Do” by Carly Pearce
Songwriter of the Year
Nicolle Galyon
Ashley Gorley
Chase McGill
Josh Osborne
Hunter Phelps
Artist — Songwriter of the Year
Luke Combs
ERNEST
HARDY
Miranda Lambert
Morgan Wallen
Music Event of the Year
“At the End of a Bar” by Chris Young with Mitchell Tenpenny
“She Had Me at Heads Carolina” [Remix] by Cole Swindell and Jo Dee Messina
“Thank God” by Kane Brown with Katelyn Brown
“Thinking ‘Bout You” by Dustin Lynch featuring MacKenzie Porter
“Wait in the Truck” by HARDY featuring Lainey Wilson
