The 59th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, held Thursday night (May 16) and streamed live on Amazon’s Prime Video, handed out awards to many artists whose music has had an undeniable impact over the past year, but they also deftly crammed more than a dozen performances into the space of two hours — including breaks in the streaming broadcast. Still, the evening — produced by Dick Clark Productions — felt tightly run, but never rushed. And of course, one of country music’s most professional, entertaining artists, Country Music Hall of Famer Reba McEntire, was leading the festivities.
In that two-hour span, the ACMs performances highlighted a range of performers, featured showcase after showcase of new music, and included a smattering of high-profile pop performers as well.
Dua Lipa made a surprise appearance, joining Chris Stapleton. Post Malone turned in one of the most solidly traditional country songs of the night. Nate Smith’s performance got an added edge thanks to rocker Avril Lavigne, while Kelsea Ballerini teamed with Noah Kahan to mesh their songs “Mountain With a View” and “Stick Season.”
Meanwhile, artists including Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, Cody Johnson and McEntire all turned in performances of fresh material, while Kane Brown opted to honor the late Ray Charles by tackling one of the icon’s classics.
While every performance was solid during the evening, some stood out more than others. Here, we countdown to the top performance of the evening during the ACM Awards.
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