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Breland presented the War and Treaty with the Groundbreaker Award at Billboard’s Country Power Players 2024.

Breland:

Sometimes, when you see an artist or a band or a duo kind of skyrocketing to unprecedented success, at least me, sometimes like, I’m just a little skeptical. Like what really is this? And trying to see like, what’s the hype about? And with this one, the group that I’m about to introduce, there’s absolutely no question about why they are winning the way that they are, because they are two of the most talented people I’ve ever met. And that’s The War and Treaty. I remember first hearing about them. It was only three years ago, and I was on tour with Dierks Bentley and Dierks had played a couple shows with them and was like, ‘Hey, you need to hear these guys.’ And he played me just like literally maybe five or six seconds of a song. And I was like, ‘Turn it off … I have to meet them.’ And they invited me into their home. And I was really taken with who they are as people. We share a lot in common, just in terms of our upbringing and kind of our unprecedented paths into country music. And we really hit it off, and they’ve kind of become, kind of like family to me. But if you’ve ever heard The War and Treaty, which I’m sure everyone in here has, if you were at the ACMs last year, or in any capacity, I don’t want to make this too spiritual…

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Lainey Wilson accepted the Record Breaker Award presented by Lone River Ranch Water at Billboard’s Country Power Players 2024.

Lainey Wilson:

First of all, I just want to say thank you so much, Billboard, for having me here today. This is a big deal. A really big deal. It is an absolute honor to be just surrounded by people in country music in this room. I look around and I see so many people who have supported me from the beginning. And so many people who I get to call and get advice from and people who lead me and guide me. And this is a wild ride. So you definitely have to have those kinds of people in your life. Thank you, Kelsea. She’s over there running her mouth. But thank you so much for presenting me with this award. She is such a trailblazer and I’m so thankful that she has, what she has done for women and country music. It’s an honor to know her as an artist, but also as a friend, even though like she mentioned, the day after the Grammys, the Internet thought we hated each other. But what the Internet does not see is that she actually showed up to my Grammy party to celebrate me and to celebrate my win. And that’s the kind of person that she is. And that’s the kind of people that I like to surround myself with. So thank you so much for being here. Being named Record Breaker, that’s something that I would have dreamed about a few years ago.

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Seth England accepts the Executive of the Year award at Billboard’s Country Power Players 2024.

Seth England:
Hey, everyone. I just want to start by saying thank you for such a huge honor. I’m a little overwhelmed, to be honest, by such a big honor when in so many ways, I feel like, you know, the mission of Big Loud is just getting started. But today, I stop and realize that it’s been about nine or 10 years, almost on the nose for the record label. And it just it astounds me, because I remember a moment when we counted the money we’d saved in the account. And we knew we had three and a half years if we’d sold no records, and we did sell some records and we kept going.

Big Loud’s a creator first business. So I’d like to first start off by thanking the creators to the big artists, songwriters, and record producers — we are nothing without your genius and creative spirit. I will also want to give a big shout-out to the department heads and employees at Big Loud. This award is just as much yours as it is mine. Big Loud was never just about myself, Joey Craig, and Chief. It’s about all of us.

I also want to give a big shout out to my wife, Kiyah, who constantly supports the crazy schedule we have. This week alone, we rented an Airbnb to bring our children down, because we have to go to New York right away on Friday and couldn’t imagine being gone that long.

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