Taylor Swift returns to ACM Awards with acoustic performance
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (AP) — Country-turned-pop star Taylor Swift didn’t need a lot of
bells and whistles for her highly anticipated return to the Academy of
Country Music Awards.
Taylor Swift made her first appearance at
the ACMs in seven years on Wednesday with an acoustic performance of her
song “betty” from her new record “Folklore” in a darkened Grand Ole
Opry House. Unlike her extravagant tours and other awards show
appearances, Swift kept it simple with just a couple of stage
floodlights and a harmonica player for accompaniment, but her smile
glowed as she strummed and sang the heartbreak song.
Country
group Old Dominion took an early lead at the Academy of Country Music
Awards, winning song of the year and group of the year, as they
acknowledged how the empty seats in front of them reminded them of
people who they had lost.
The awards show aired from empty venues
in Nashville, Tennessee, with no fans and no applause, even when
winners got up live to accept their awards. Matthew Ramsey, lead singer
of Old Dominion, said the empty venue and quiet made him think of
friends and family they had lost.
“I can feel them all,” Ramsey
said on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry House as he accepted the award
for song of the year for “One Man Band.” “They are so proud, and it’s
such an honor to receive this in their presence.”
Luke Bryan, Eric
Church, Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood, all vying for
entertainer of the year, sang to empty seats and no applause at the
Grand Ole Opry House, the Ryman Auditorium and the Bluebird Cafe. The
show was delayed from April due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the tone
was more serious that in years past.
Host Keith Urban noted all
the changes this year for the show and for the country in general,
saying 2020 has been an “unpredictable and unsettling year.” After
noting wildfires on the West Coast, hurricanes in the South, Urban said
the country is battling two pandemics: COVID-19 and social injustice.
“Far
too many lives have been lost to both,” he said. “But the examples set
by essential workers, our first responders, along with the voices crying
out for equality in all walks of life, have echoed around the world and
right here in our country community.”
Combs, who has turned from a
new artist into one of country’s biggest sensations with massive
streaming numbers, won album of the year for his record “What You See Is
What You Get.”
“I am at the Bluebird right now, a place that I
always wanted to play before I moved to town,” said Combs. “All the fans
thank you so much for loving this album. Thank you, Wow!”
Blake
Shelton and Gwen Stefani, who weren’t in Nashville, were in a green
screen room that turned into a virtual replica of the Bluebird for their
duet “Happy Anywhere.” Shelton won single of the year for his song,
“God’s Country.”
Miranda Lambert performed a stripped-down version
of her No. 1 song “Bluebird,” at the Bluebird Cafe in a blue fringed
shirt and a sparkly belt. Lambert’s vocals seemed to fill up the space
in the tiny songwriters’ club surrounded by tables and chairs, but no
fans.
Carrie Underwood sang a tribute to iconic female Opry
members, including Patsy Cline, Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Barbara
Mandrell, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. The entertainer of the year
nominee effortlessly breezed through snippets of classics like “Crazy,”
“You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That,”
and “Fancy.”
“They are some of my heroes and I am so honored to
stand alongside them as a fellow member of the Opry,” said Underwood,
who sang her heart out to a venue that flickered with lights where
people should have been.
Trisha Yearwood will perform a memorial tribute performance that will likely include Kenny Rogers, Joe Diffie, Charlie Daniels
and John Prine, who all died in 2020. Country singer Mickey Guyton’s
performance of “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” will highlight food
insecurity. The ACMs will also showcase their charity contributions to
unemployed workers in the music industry.
Leading nominees include Dan + Shay, Old Dominion and Maren Morris,
and all eyes will be on the entertainer of the year category.
Underwood, who won the category in 2008 and 2009, seems a likely
frontrunner after many feel she was overdue for an entertainer of the
year win at the other major country awards show, the CMA Awards, last November.
Swift was the last female artist to win ACM entertainer of the year in 2011.
Combs,
who earned his first entertainer of the year nomination this year after
winning new male artist of the year last year, could prove to be an
upset after amassing incredible streaming numbers with his first two
records and hitting the top of Billboard’s country radio chart for nine
consecutive singles.
The eligibility period for this year’s show
was calendar year 2019 and voting ended before the pandemic hit, so the
awards being handed out this late in the year may sound a little older
than what is currently trending in country music.
Miranda
Lambert, already the most awarded artist in ACM history with over 30
wins, looks to extend her five-time win streak in the album of the year
category with her record “Wildcard.” But the crossover success of Maren
Morris’s album “GIRL” is also likely appeal to voters this year.