Lainey Wilson at the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards from Ford Center at The Star on May 11, 2023 in Frisco, Texas. (Photo by Gilbert Flores)

Lainey Wilson Wins Big At ACM Awards

By: Cheryl Johnstone

12/5/2023

Country Music News

Lainey Wilson came up big at the 58th ACM Awards on Thursday, May 11th.

She and Hardy shared Music Event of the Year and Visual Media of the Year for their song, “Wait in the Truck”, “Bell Bottom Country” won Album of the Year, and she topped that by winning Female Artist of the Year.

Dolly Parton, who won Female Artist of the Year in 1980 announced Lainey as this year’s winner. Stepping up to the microphone, she said,

“I can’t believe I just met Dolly Parton!”

Chris Stapleton won Entertainer of the Year. He got emotional accepting the award and acknowledged his family.

“By any imaginable metric, I don’t deserve this but, thank you. There are so many other great people in this category and I get through and I stand up and I play music, that’s what I try to do every night. I write songs and I make records and I never thought of myself as someone who would win this award. I’m so grateful to every person that works so hard to make us do what we do. My wife, thank you. Folks in management, red light management, universal. All the guys on the road touring. My band and crew, we have the greatest band in crew in the whole [bleep] world and that is the truth. I’m literally at a loss of words to say but I wanna say…my kids sitting home…they give up a lot of my time; a lot of my wife’s time so we can go do this. This is for them.”

Ed Sheeran showed up, and his surprise collaborator was Luke Combs. They traded verses on Ed’s song “Life Goes On”.

Morgan Wallen won Best Male Artist, but wasn’t in attendance.

Cole Swindell’s hit, “She Had Me At Heads Carolina” picked up both Song and Single of the Year. Cole told the audience,

“I don’t know what I ever did to get this fortunate.”

Brothers Osborne won Best Duo and Old Dominion won Group of the Year.

The show was packed with live performances from Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, and Miranda Lambert.

The big finish was Dolly’s performance of her rock anthem “World on Fire”. It featured fire bursting from the stage, a full band, and 10 dancers.in

While the ACM Awards historically aired on network television, this year marked their 2nd year to be streamed and network free.

Hosted by Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks, the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards was held in Frisco, Texas.

WINNERS

Entertainer of the Year: Chris Stapleton

Album of the Year: Bell Bottom Country – Lainey Wilson

Female Artist of the Year: Lainey Wilson

Male Artist of the Year: Morgan Wallen

Duo of the Year: Brothers Osborne

Group of the Year: Old Dominion

New Female Artist of the Year: Hailey Whitters

New Male Artist of the Year: Zach Bryan

Single of the Year: She Had Me at Heads Carolina – Cole Swindell

Song of the Year: She Had Me at Heads Carolina – Tim Nichols, Cole Swindell, Ashley Gorley, and Mark D. Sanders

Visual Media of the Year: Wait in the Truck – HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson

Music Event of the Year: Wait in the Truck – HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson

Artist-Songwriter of the Year: HARDY

Songwriter of the Year: Ashley Gorley

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