Lainey Wilson Wins Female Artist of the Year at 2024 ACM Awards, Shouts Out Women Who ‘Guided’ Her

After being named Record Breaker Award at Billboard‘s Country Power Players, Lainey Wilson notched another win on Thursday night (May 16) at the 2024 ACM Awards for female artist of the year.

Jumping on the stage at The Star in Frisco, Texas, Lainey Wilson — dressed head-to-toe in an all-red cowboy getup — immediately shared her joy at receiving the award from country music icon Reba McEntire. “Reba just gave me this thing!” she exclaimed.

In accepting the award, the recent Billboard cover star took the time to give flowers to her fellow nominees Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley McBryde, Megan Moroney and Kacey Musgraves, as well as all of the other pioneering women in the country genre who helped her get to where she is today. “I just wanna take a minute and talk about the women in country music,” she said. “A lot of the women who were in the category specifically are some of my best friends.”

Along with thanking her label, Wilson thanked Wynona Judd, who she said “gives me devotionals every week,” before calling on the women in the audience to continue supporting one another. “We gotta do this more for each other,” she said. “Iron sharpens iron.”

The singer was also nominated for entertainer of the year, song of the year and music event of the year, which she won shortly after for her collaboration with Jelly Roll, “Save Me.”

The show was produced by Dick Clark Productions. DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldridge. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.