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Even before the ACM Awards got underway Thursday (May 8), winners had been announced in six categories. And in one of those categories, the voters delivered a big surprise. Country traditionalist Zach Top took the award for new male artist of the year, beating Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” had spent 19 weeks at […]
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Lainey Wilson and Ella Langley were the big winners at the 2025 ACM Awards, which were held on Thursday (May 8) at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Wilson won four awards, including entertainer of the year and album of the year. Langley won five, including four for “you look like you love me,” her flirty duet with Riley Green.
Wilson won entertainer of the year for the second year in a row. She’s the first person to win back-to-back awards in that top category since Jason Aldean scored a threepeat from 2016-18. She’s the first woman to win back-to-back awards for entertainer of the year since Taylor Swift achieved the feat in 2009-10.
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Wilson also won album of the year for Whirlwind. She had also won for her previous studio album, Bell Bottom Country. She’s the seventh artist in ACM history to win for back-to-back studio albums (whether they won the awards in consecutive years or not). Miranda Lambert won with five consecutive studio albums. Chris Stapleton won with two consecutive studio albums – and he did that twice. Winning with two consecutive studio albums once were Alabama, Alan Jackson, George Strait and The Chicks.
Wilson won female artist of the year for the third year in a row. She’s the first artist to achieve that feat since Lambert won nine years in a row from 2010-18. Wilson’s fourth award was for artist-songwriter of the year.
Langley and Green won in three categories for their hit “you look like you love me.” The duet won single of the year, music event of the year and visual media of the year. (Langley won two awards in the visual media category, as both artist and one of the directors.) Oddly, they didn’t perform the song on the show, perhaps because they performed it on the CMA Awards in November. Langley’s fifth award on the night was new female artist of the year.
Hosted by Reba McEntire, the ACM Awards streamed live on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch.
Here are other acts that made history at the ACM Awards:
Old Dominion won group of the year for the eighth year in a row, which allowed them to break out of a tie with Rascal Flatts for the most wins in the history of that category. By coincidence, Rascal Flatts was among the nominees this year. Old Dominion’s eight-year winning streak is the longest in any category since Lambert won female artist of the year nine years in a row from 2010-18.
Brooks & Dunn won duo of the year for the first time since 2010. The award had gone back and forth between Dan + Shay and Brothers Osborne for the past eight years. This extends Brooks & Dunn’s record number of wins in this category to 17. Brooks & Dunn won duo of the year at last year’s CMA Awards, setting the stage for this win.
Chris Stapleton won male artist of the year for the fifth time, which puts him in a four-way tie with Merle Haggard, George Strait and Brad Paisley for the most wins in the history of the category.
“Dirt Cheap,” written by Josh Phillips and recorded by Cody Johnson, won song of the year. It’s the first song written by a solitary songwriter to win since Jennifer Nettles won for “Stay” in 2008. Just one other song written by just one writer has won since 2000: Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” in 2002.
Moreover, “Dirt Cheap” is the first song in 11 years that was not written or co-written by the artist to in in this category. The last was “I Drive Your Truck,” written by Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington and Jimmy Yeary, and recorded by Lee Brice.
As previously announced, Zach Top won for new male artist of the year; The Red Clay Strays for new duo or group of the year; and Jessie Jo Dillon for songwriter of the year. This was the second year in a row that Dillon, the daughter of songwriting great Dean Dillon, has won in that category. She is the fourth two-time winner in that category, following Dallas Davidson, Shane McAnally and Hillary Lindsey.
Two non-competitive awards were also presented – a lifetime achievement award to Alan Jackson and a Triple Crown award to Keith Urban (signifying that he has won a new artist of the year award; an award for male, female, duo or group of the year; and entertainer of the year).
Morgan Wallen, Post Malone and Kelsea Ballerini were completely shut out, despite going into the show with a total of 16 nominations between them – seven for Wallen, five for Posty and four for Ballerini.
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Talk about the trailblazers! Country icon Reba McEntire joined Lainey Wilson and Miranda Lambert to debut the trio’s emotional new collaboration “Trailblazer” toward the end of the 2025 ACM Awards Thursday (May 8) at The Star in Frisco, Texas. The song had dropped on streaming services just hours earlier, at 8 p.m. ET.
The celebrated country artists took to a stage that was dressed to appear like a barren desert, the skies behind them a warm orange as the silhouettes of birds fluttered through the the scene. Dressed in matching brown suede outfits accented with turquoise, the three women traded lyrics before harmonizing on the chorus, singing, “Talk about a trailblazer, cuttin’ one half at a time/ Running like a dream chaser, living on a prayer and a rhyme/ Put a flag in the ground to the country sound, to the rhythm of your own highway/ Talk about a trailblazer, I’m rolling down the road you paved.”
At the end of the song, McEntire, who was also hosting the show for the 18th time, took the hands of her collaborators, and together, the three women walked to the front of the stage and took a bow together.
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The day before the ACM Awards, the trio spoke to Billboard‘s Melinda Newman about their new ballad, which pays tribute to those who influenced them and paved the way. “We wanted to lean in pretty hard to paying tribute to each person,” shared Lambert, who was the focus of Billboard‘s inaugural Power Pets feature alongside her dog Bellamy. “We had to do it strategically, though, because we didn’t want it to be so blatant — but more like a secret thing that you would have to listen to it twice.”
“We were just having a conversation about how [Lambert and McEntire] have influenced me and [about] passing the torch and blazing trails for each other,” Wilson also noted. “Generation after generation, it’s going to continue, but we got to keep blazing those trails for the next one.”
The 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.
Shortly after taking the stage to give her three-way collaboration with Reba McEntire and Miranda Lambert, “Trailblazer,” its live debut, Lainey Wilson was called back up to the mic at the 2025 ACM Awards when Blake Shelton revealed that she was the evening’s big winner, nabbing the entertainer of the year award. Accepting the award, […]
Some of the best harmonies in pop and country music joined forces on Thursday night (May 8) when Backstreet Boys hit the ACM Awards stage to close the 2025 show alongside Rascal Flatts. The eight men teamed up for four songs, starting with 2006’s “What Hurts the Most” — which the two groups just re-recorded […]