2018 ACM Award Winners & Recap!!!
The evening of awards was not only entertaining with the celebration of the artists' CRANKIN achievements, but also moving as the country artists returned to Las Vegas for the first time after the deadly mass shooting in October 2017. Though it was emotional, the country music performed by the artists helped people to move forward and heal from those emotional wounds.
First up, Miranda Lambert took home three awards and now has a record-breaking total of 32 award wins! She first received the Female Vocalist of the Year. Her song, "Tin Man", got awarded as the Song of the Year. She was awarded as both an artist and a songwriter in the recognition for heartbreaking (or heart completely absent) tune!
Chris Stapleton had a pretty damn good evening. He won two awards AND found his beautiful wife Morgane gave birth to twins. Oh yeah, and it was his 40TH BIRTHDAY! What a birthday, huh? Stapleton won the Male Vocalist of the Year award as well as the Album of the Year for his release, "From A Room: Volume 1."
Brothers Osborne also had some grooving success as they received accolades for both Vocal Duo of the Year and Video of the Year for their killer video for, "It Ain't My Fault." All these accolades but no performance slot?? Come on ACM's...
The Single Record of the Year goes to Sam Hunt's, "Body Like a Back Road." Too bad he couldn't have been bothered to come accept the honor in person though!
Nashville local, Old Dominion, had a commendable evening. Their nomination for album of the year seemed to come out of nowhere (though well deserved). While they didn't score big there, they did manage to snag the award for Vocal Group of the Year!
Notably, the vocal event of the year award landed in the hands of Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood for "The Fighter." This came just moments after Carrie's show stopping performance/reintroduction to the public eye after a nasty fall outside of her house in November. She was still visibly shaking as she accepted her award. WE LOVE YOU CARRIE!
Finally, the biggest award goes to Jason Aldean as he won the entertainer of the year! From the start of the show, Jason opened with this; “It’s everything you’ll hear tonight, from the songs that bring us to our feet, make you want to pull someone close, or just live in the moment. Nothing can take that away from us." Aldean was on the stage at the Route 91 harvest festival at the time when the gunshots started to go off. After he received the prized award for the third consecutive year, he says some touching statements in his speech. "It's been a rough year, and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who reached out to us and showed us love and support over the last six months. To my Route 91 people, you guys are in our hearts always and we love Las Vegas. Vegas strong, baby."