Chris Stapleton and Jason Aldean Won Big at Last Night’s ACMs
CHRIS STAPLETON’s amazing year continued at last night’s “51st Annual ACM Awards”. He won four awards, including Top Male Vocalist, Album of the Year for “Traveller”, and Song of the Year for“Nobody To Blame”.
JASON ALDEAN won the Entertainer of the Year, and he was genuinely honored. He told the crowd, quote, “I was starting to think this one wasn’t in the cards for me. This is one of the best nights of my professional career.”
The other winners included MIRANDA LAMBERT as Top Female Vocalist, LITTLE BIG TOWN winning Top Vocal Group, and FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE as Top Vocal Duo.
LUKE BRYAN and DIERKS BENTLEY cohosted for the first time and despite the hype, they played it cool and didn’t embarrass themselves. They even weathered BLAKE SHELTON “crashing” the show’s opening as if he owned the place.
One early bit that foreshadowed the night was when Luke and Dierks each took credit for Chris Stapleton’s success. And then other country artists in the audience started standing up and saying they did. Eventually the entire crowd rose up to lay claim.
Some of the top performances included CAM, who kept it simple and real while singing “Burning House”.
ERIC CHURCH turned his performance of “Record Year” into a memorial. He and a DJ played bits of songs that honored David Bowie, Stone Temple Pilots’ Scott Weiland, Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, and Glenn Frey of The Eagles.
LITTLE BIG TOWN had jazz musician Trombone Shorty join them for their song “Stay All Night”. It was cool to see JIMI WESTBROOK and PHILLIP WESTBROOK handling lead vocals. Everyone in that band can sing.
NICK JONAS was there to help KELSEA BALLERINI perform her song “Peter Pan”. He played guitar and did some singing. TIM MCGRAW kept his promise and brought out real fans for his performance of “Humble and Kind”.
There was also a “can’t miss” moment when Miranda Lambert, KEITH URBAN, and BILLY GIBBONS tore through ZZ Top’s “Tush”. The whole room shook.
Everyone was looking forward to KATY PERRY honoring DOLLY PARTON with the Tex Ritter Award. As always, Dolly was terrific . . . and as expected, Katy stuck around to help her sing “Coat of Many Colors”, “Jolene”, and“Nine to Five”.
If you like red carpet fashions, CountryWeekly.com has a collection of photos. And check out Miranda Lambert’s gun and holster accessory on her shoes.
Academy of Country Music Award Winners:
Entertainer of the Year: Jason Aldean
Top Male Vocalist: Chris Stapleton
T0p Female Vocalist: Miranda Lambert
Top Vocal Group: Little Big Town
Top Vocal Duo: Florida Georgia Line
Album of the Year: “Traveller”, Chris Stapleton
Song of the Year: “Nobody To Blame”, Chris Stapleton
Single Record of the Year: “Die A Happy Man”, Thomas Rhett
Video of the Year: “Mr. Misunderstood”, Eric Church
Vocal Event of the Year: “Smokin’ And Drinkin'”, Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town
(Best New Artist was divided into three categories, and they were announced last week. Chris Stapleton won New Male Artist of the Year, Kelsea Ballerini was named New Female Artist, and Old Dominion won New Duo/Group of the Year.)
Shania Twain and Ashton Kutcher Had a Fake Twitter War
SHANIA TWAIN got into a friendly Twitter war with ASHTON KUTCHER because of jokes his character made about her on his Netflix series “The Ranch”. He plays an ex-football player who claimed that he dated her, and that he showed her his “Twain.”
The Internet started making noise, so he got in front of it. He Tweeted an apology and added, quote, “I had no inhibitions, made no conditions, and definitely got out of line @TheRanchNetflix.” Those are lyrics from her song“Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”.
They went back and forth a couple more times using other song references . . . and then she ended it on a friendly note by Tweeting, quote, “Having some laughs with @aplusk. Good luck with ‘The Ranch’,” (@aplusk is Ashton’s Twitter handle.)
In case you missed this: LUKE BRYAN and DIERKS BENTLEY performed a British-themed “Honky Tonk” song on Thursday’s “Late Late Show with James Corden”. Obviously, they were trying to stir up excitement for the ACMs.
CARRIE UNDERWOOD knows how to get my attention. She posted a bikini selfie to announce her new Calia by Carrie Swimwear Line. She captioned it, “I’m so proud to be able to create a line of swimwear that makes me feel so good. Adorable and athletic . . . and covers everything I want covered.”
This is pretty big. FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE’s “Cruise” is the first country song to ever reach Diamond status. That’s a total of 10 million in combined sales and streaming. (Billboard)
KENNY CHESNEY’s next album is called “Some Town Somewhere”, and it’ll be out July 8th. (Full Story)
KELSEA BALLERINI shows a lot of leg in her “Peter Pan“ video. Pretty sure you’ll enjoy it.