Acm Awards 2024: Full List Of Winners

Academy of Country Music Awards; It is surprising that many of the big stars of country music right now were not in the show. None of Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, or Morgan Wallen—figures who can be said to have been the three top trending artists in the genre league last year—even took part in the show. Their lack of involvement was felt throughout the night.

Lainey Wilson

The event’s commencement portrayed an apathetic tone, and Lainey Wilson sang her couple of hits, including a new rocker, “Hang Tight Honey.” As much as Lainey Wilson is becoming one of the most promising artists in the country genre, she failed to exhibit extreme vocal tones and higher energy levels, thus overshadowing the element of Lainey’s impressiveness.

Wilson went on to win two of the biggest awards

Female Artist of the Year and the evening’s top honor, Entertainer of the Year, were both awarded. However, even those big wins felt rather anticlimactic and pedestrian, resulting more from a lack of competition than truly stellar work in the Entertainment industry over the past year.

Host Reba McEntire’s monologue also fell flat. It featured some terribly lame jokes about having a “dry wit” and compared Wilson to Dolly Parton way too prematurely. McEntire is a beloved country icon, but her hosting abilities could have been better.

Next Thing You Know

The first couple of award winners were straight head-scratchers. Jordan Davis’ just-okay “Next Thing You Know” inexplicably won Song of the Year over massive hits like Luke Combs’ version of “Fast Car.” And Dan + Shay were named Duo of the Year almost by default, with no serious competition.

One of the night’s few bright spots was Cody Johnson’s simple but touching performance of “Dirt Cheap” sung alone on a stool. For a few minutes, it captured the down-home spirit and storytelling that’s supposed to be the backbone of country music.

Miranda Lambert

But that humble vibe was quickly forgotten as Miranda Lambert returned to her recent pattern of attempting to be “edgy” and “tomboy tough” on her new single “Wranglers.” It was a pretty toothless track that again showed Lambert’s sound shifting towards bland, mainstream pop country.

Much of the broadcast was a blur of forgettable performances from acts like Thomas Rhett, Parker McCollum, and Nate Smith and generic duets with random pop stars like Avril Lavigne. At no point did the energy level get pumped up or did the excitement reach a fever pitch.

Kane Brown

Even the duo performances that should have been can’t-miss pairings failed to deliver. Kane Brown did a hokey tribute to Ray Charles with the group The War and Treaty that would have worked better if he just let the supremely talented War and Treaty take the reins.

Later, Blake Shelton and their wife Gwen Stefani got in on the action with a sleepy rendition of “Purple Irises,” which made you wonder whether Gwen is even interested in making country music anymore or if she was just doing it as a favor to her husband.

Should’ve Been a Cowboy

Tribute performances to country legends also missed the mark. While Jason Aldean’s stripped-down take on Toby Keith’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” was nicely understated, having Aldean as the performer introduced immediately lowered the prestige factor. And Post Malone’s attempt to honor Dickey Betts with a one-line “Ramblin’ Man” cover alongside Reba seemed like a random afterthought.

Cutaway crowd shots at several points in the broadcast captured audience members looking disinterested and even annoyed. A few times, winners seemed to need help figuring out where to exit the stage after receiving their trophy. It added an amateurish feeling to an already rudderless show.

Dua Lipa

Even the few appearances by massive pop stars like Dua Lipa felt shoehorned in and ill-fitting for a country awards show – almost as if the producers knew they needed some bigger names to generate interest, so they booked a few random pop acts whether it made sense or not.

As the night mercifully drew to a close with an uninspired finale from Reba and some of the other performers, it crystallized why so many fans didn’t bother tuning in – and why megastars like Combs, Bryan, and Wallen didn’t even show up. For an awards show that used to be seen as the country’s strong #2 awards show behind the CMA Awards, this year’s ACM broadcast was so stunningly dull and lifeless that it raises serious concerns about its long-term viability.

CMA Awards

With the CMT Awards broadcast on CBS now staging a serious threat to supplant the ACMs as the genre’s second-most high-profile awards show, the ACM organizers are pressured to inject new energy and prestige into the production.