2015 ACM Awards: Best Moments
Written by Coog Radio on April 20, 2015
Last night, the ACM Awards rocked the state of Texas from AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington. The show celebrated their 50th anniversary in a big way with performances from legends including the long awaited return of Brooks & Dunn! Long time buddies Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton hosted the record breaking show. Check out some of the best moments and a list of winners below!
From the beginning the 50th annual ACM awards kicked off with a bang, Eric Church was joined by Grammy-award winner Keith Urban to pay tribute to Merle Haggard with the song “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag.” At the end of the performance, Keith Urban took the mic and showcased his vocals by singing “Raise ‘Em Up” while Church continued to accompany him on guitar.
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This year the ACM’s introduced a the Milestone Award to a handful of artists starting with the legendary George Strait who performed “All My Exes Live in Texas” and “Let It Go” which had the Texas crowd going crazy.
Throughout the show, Milestone award winners were introduced and performed some of their biggest hits.
Award Winners: Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn
One of the most talked about moments during the ACM’s (which is hard to choose because everyone was raving about so many things) was when Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo came out as a presenter and was interrupted by Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan. Bryan just really wanted Romo to throw him a pass which he did and Bryan caught it then handed the ball over to Shelton who asked if the ball was deflated. (For non-football folks deflated balls were a big deal this past season, google it y’all!)
Romo’s response was by far the best however, he didn’t skip a beat and exclaimed, “We’re the Dallas Cowboys, we have real balls.”
Miranda Lambert was the queen of the 50th annual ACM’s and cleaned house scooping up three awards in the biggest categories of the night including Album of the Year.
“I love my job so much, I will never not love this job,” said Miranda after winning Female Vocalist of the Year. Lambert also took home Song of the Year for “Automatic” along with her Milestone Award.
Sam Hunt, Cole Swindell, and Thomas Rhett took the stage to perform their singles after being the three nominated for New Artist of the Year. Cole Swindell took home the fan-voted award.
“Thank you fans, for giving this to me, and thank you Luke Bryan for being like a big brother to me!” said Swindell who before getting his big break used to sling merch for Bryan on tour.
The jam packed ceremony saw not only waves of country stars but also included superstar appearances from Nick Jonas and Christina Aguilera who both performed along with Reece Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, and a couple Dallas Cowboys players and cheerleaders.
Co-host Luke Bryan went home with the biggest award of the night for Entertainer of the Year which, along with New Artist of the Year, is fan voted. Bryan’s acceptance speech, while rushed, was full of excitement and Luke was all smiles this time around. Luke also performed “I See You” off his album Crash My Party, “I See You” was the sixth single released from the album which went number one making Bryan the only artist to ever achieve six number one singles.
Taylor Swift definitely wins as one of the most emotional moments of the night, the 25-year-old superstar was one of the seven to take home a Milestone Award, and who got the honor to present it? Well, her mother of course. Andrea took the stage and delivered an emotional speech about Swift’s childhood and her career.
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Garth Brooks took the stage to perform “All American Kid,” a powerful song which was intensified by the presence of military members surrounding the stage and Brooks dedicating the performance to his home state of Oklahoma.
Little Big Town performed their newest single “Girl Crush” which is taking country radio by storm. Other performances also included Lady Antebellum who performed “Long Stretch of Love,” Florida Georgia Line performing “Sipping on Fire” and amazing live mashups between Christina Aguilera and Rascal Flatts who performed “Shotgun” and “Riot” while Nick Jonas joined Vocal Duo of the Year nominees Dan + Shay for a mashup of “Nothing Like You” with “Jealous” and “Chains.”
The show closed out with a great performance from legendary group, Brooks & Dunn who reunited for the first time since splitting up in 2010. The duo performed a high-energy version of their 1996-hit “My Maria.”
The 50th annual Academy of Country Music Awards was a giant success that Texas had the honor of hosting because everyone knows that everything is bigger here. Congrats to all of the winners.
What were your favorite moments of the show?
Check out the full list of award winners below!
Entertainer of the Year: Luke Bryan
Single of the Year: Lee Brice, “I Don’t Dance”
Male Vocalist of the Year: Jason Aldean
Female Vocalist of the Year: Miranda Lambert
Album of the Year: Miranda Lambert, “Platinum”
Vocal Group of the Year: Little Big Town
Vocal Duo of the Year: Florida Georgia Line
Song of the Year: Miranda Lambert, “Automatic”
Video of the Year: Dierks Bentley, “Drunk on a Plane”
New Artist of the Year: Cole Swindell
Vocal Event of the Year: Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan, “This is How We Roll”
Milestone Awards: George Strait, Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn and Kenny Chesney
By Norma Becerra
