The 54th Annual ACM Awards Gave Us Incredible, Inspiring Performances
The 54th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards was full of first-time collaborations and performances. To start off the show, Florida Georgia Line performed “Can’t Hide Red” with Jason Aldean, who is featured on the track on their new album Can’t Say I Ain’t Country. Tyler Hubbard of FGL was decked out in red, white and blue during the performance.
Collaborations that stood out last night included Maren Morris featuring Brothers Osbourne as they performed “All My Favorite People” off her new album Girl. The backdrop was neon signs from the iconic Santa’s Pub and Losers Bar and Grill in Nashville. Luke Combs took the stage again after singing “Beautiful Crazy” to perform “Brand New Man” with Brooks & Dunn. Combs featured on this track on the newly released Reboot album. “This Is Us” star, Chrissy Metz took the stage for her first live television singing appearance to perform “Standing With You”. Artists such as Lauren Alaina, Mickey Guyton, Carrie Underwood, and other incredible background singers joined her on stage for a beautiful, breathtaking collaboration.
Other collaborations included Chris Stapleton performing “Simple Song” with his wife, Morgane, Eric Church – The Snake with Ashley McBryde, George Strait – “Run” with Miranda Lambert, Dan + Shay and Kelly Clarkson – “Keeping Score”, Dierks Bentley and Brandi Carlile – “Travelin’ Light” and Kane Brown and Khalid singing their pop-infused hit song “Saturday Nights”.
Two individual/group performances that stood out to us were Carrie Underwood’s “Southbound” and Little Big Town’s “The Daughters”. Underwood’s performance began outside on the pool deck. This imagery fits the summer tailgate song’s theme. She then walked into the arena with her dance crew/party guests behind her. Little Big Town’s performance was a much different vibe. Their dance crew was young ballet dancers who were circling around the Grammy award-winning group as they played their new, heartfelt, emotionally moving song. At the end of the performance, two of the girls ran up to the front of the stage. Those two girls were Daisy and Rebecca; Phillip Sweet’s and Kimberly Schlpman’s daughters, respectively.
Other first time performances included Luke Bryan – “Knocking Boots”, Blake Shelton –“God’s Country”, LANCO – “Rival”, Keith Urban who covered Foy Vance’s “Burden” and “Freedom” by Reba McEntire, who was introduced by her old co-star Melissa Peterman aka Barbara Jean on her sitcom called ‘Reba’.
Jason Aldean performed three songs before he received the ACM Artist of Decade award, “Lights Come On”, “Don’t You Wanna Stay” with Kelly Clarkson and “Dirt Road Anthem”.
Overall, a historic night in country music. It was amazing watching all the collaborations and the live versions of songs artists have yet to perform in concert! To see all of last night’s winners, check out our latest blog post! If you missed the performances, you can watch them all here on CBS.com
Cover Photo Courtesy of ACM Facebook
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