MIRANDA LAMBERT was the top winner with three awards. She won Female Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year for “Automatic”, and Album of the Year for “Platinum”.
LUKE BRYAN took home two trophies. He won Entertainer of the Year, plus Vocal Event of the Year for his collaboration with FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE on “This Is How We Roll”. Florida Georgia Line also won Top Vocal Duo.
The star of the night was supposed to be AT&T Park because it’s huge and all that, but it didn’t really translate to TV. If anything, it seemed too big, almost cavernous, with no chance for intimacy. Still, here we are talking about it, so there’s that.
As far as the show itself, BLAKE SHELTON and Luke Bryan must have gotten a memo to lay low on the jokes. No complaints here
An early surprise was LEE BRICE paying tribute to RANDY TRAVIS by singing “Forever and Ever, Amen” . . . and then he pointed to Randy who was in the audience.
TAYLOR SWIFT was back. They had her mom present her with a Milestone Award, and then Taylor did right by thanking the country music community for “gracefully” accepting her decision to go pop.
One anticipated event was CHRISTINA AGUILERA performing with RASCAL FLATTS. They did a song called “Shotgun”, which her character on “Nashville” will perform on an upcoming episode. They also did Flatts’ hit “Riot”.
A great moment was when Taya Kyle, widow of “American Sniper” CHRIS KYLE, joined Nancy O’Dell to present GARTH BROOKS with his Milestone award. Garth performed “All-American Kid” and was joined by active military service members.
There was a collaboration that totally surprised me. NICK JONAS and DAN + SHAY did a mashup that included the songs “Jealous” and “Chains”. It worked, although Dan + Shay’s hair, not so much.
We should mention that addition to Taylor and Garth, other ACM Milestone Award recipients were Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, and Miranda Lambert.
Finally, if you’re into red carpet fashion stuff . . . Fox put together a “Hot or Not” slideshow that’s kind of interesting.
Here are this year’s ACM winners:
Entertainer of the Year: Luke Bryan
Top Male Vocalist: Jason Aldean
Top Female Vocalist: Miranda Lambert
Top Vocal Group: Little Big Town
Top Vocal Duo: Florida Georgia Lin
Top New Artist: Cole Swindel
Album of the Year: “Platinum”, Miranda Lambert
Song of the Year: “Automatic”, Miranda Lambert
Single Record of the Year: “I Don’t Dance”, Lee Brice
Video of the Year: “Drunk On A Plane”, Dierks Bentley
Vocal Event of the Year: “This Is How We Roll”, Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan
