\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tThis year, Megan Moroney<\/a> leads all nominees with nine nominations, followed by Miranda Lambert<\/a> with eight and then Ella Langley<\/a> and Lainey Wilson<\/a> with seven each. Langley led all nominees last year with eight. \u201cYou look across the board at all nominees, it\u2019s definitely heavily leaning toward a lot of relatively newer acts in a lot of ways, which is awesome to see,\u201d Whiteside says. \u201cThere\u2019s just a whole new, exciting crop of artists that are being recognized by the ACMs. From a voter perspective, we tend to be the first to recognize an artist in their career. It\u2019s cool because you hear from a lot of legends that an ACM was their first award.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRounding out the leading nominees are Chris Stapleton<\/a> with six, the most of any male artist; followed by Zach Top<\/a> with five and Cody Johnson<\/a> and Riley Green<\/a>, each with four.<\/p>\n \n\tThis year there is no new duo or group category because there were not enough qualified candidates submitted. \u201cAn artist or an act needs to submit to be considered for a category, so there\u2019s always some cases where, especially in the new categories, that they choose not to submit in a given year because they may want to wait until they have even more going on because you can only be nominated twice in the category,\u201d Whiteside says. \u201cWe expect it will be back next year.\u201d To qualify, an artist must have had a charting song in the year of eligibility, which, for the current awards, was Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2025. There must be at least three qualified nominees. <\/p>\n \n\tFour awards have already been announced: Songwriter of the year (Jessie J<\/a>o<\/a> Dillon<\/a>), new male artist of the year (Tucker Wetmore<\/a>), new female artist of the year (Avery Anna<\/a>) and visual media of the year (\u201cCuckoo,\u201d Stephen Wilson, Jr.<\/a>; producer\/director: Tim Cofield).<\/p>\n \n\tThe ACM Awards move back to Las Vegas for the first time since 2022, and, more specifically, back to the city\u2019s MGM Grand Garden Arena for the first time since 2019. \u201cWe\u2019ve been looking at opportunities since I\u2019ve been here to go back to Vegas,\u201d he says, though adds that the past three years holding the show at The Star in Frisco, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 practice facility, was \u201ca great opportunity to go and spend three years with them. We loved that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, given the show\u2019s long history with Las Vegas and the town\u2019s party atmosphere, he adds \u201cit just feels like the place for a show like this and it does kind of tie back a little bit to our West Coast roots.\u201d The Academy started in Los Angeles in 1964 as the Country & Western Music Academy. \u201cI\u2019ve been hearing a lot of feedback from artists and the industry,\u201d Whiteside continues. \u201cThey\u2019re just super excited. It\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, we can\u2019t wait to go back to Vegas again. We can\u2019t wait to be at the MGM again.\u2019 I think it\u2019s fun for the artists to be able to hang out.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tThe ACM Awards will be preceded by two affiliated events in Las Vegas: On May 15, ACM Lifting Lives Country on the Green: Riley Green & Friends will take place at Topgolf Las Vegas and serve as a fundraiser for the ACM\u2019s philanthropic arm. On May 16, ACM Next Wave: Country\u2019s Beach Bash will highlight developing acts including Wetmore, Dasha<\/a>, Flatland Cavalry<\/a> and Ashley Cooke<\/a> performing poolside at the Mandalay Bay Beach.<\/p>\n \n\tThe 61st ACM Awards will be Whiteside\u2019s last as CEO. Whiteside, who took over the organization in January 2020, announced his resignation March 3, effective June 30. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t fully sunk in yet, honestly, but I would say it\u2019s bittersweet for sure,\u201d he says of his swan song. \u201cI\u2019m so focused, though, on the show being great that I really haven\u2019t thought much beyond that. After the show is over, it\u2019s going to hit me. I think we\u2019re among the best music shows out there. And I\u2019m just so proud of that that I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to hold onto and just knowing that I\u2019m leaving on a high note because it\u2019s going to be a fantastic show.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Academy of Country Music Awards may have celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, but one remnant from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,48101,136],"class_list":["post-668479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-country","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ella](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/P101GCN9-e1775691433137.jpg\")
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