Dolly Parton is about to become the third artist to receive the lifetime achievement honours from the GRAMMYs, CMA and AMA. The Americana Music Association will honour Dolly at this year’s Honors & Awards at Nashville’s iconic Ryman Auditorium on September 16th, marking Dolly's third major award of this kind.

It’s one Dolly can add to her growing collection of awards, having received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and CMA’s Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. She holds the female record for the most Top 10 albums on Billboard’s country chart. And has achieved a Top 20 country hit in 7 different decades - to put that in perspective that means audiences have been buying Dolly Parton albums for longer than many of today’s biggest country stars have even been alive.

It would be wrong to talk about a lifetime achievement award without talking about Dolly's life.

Her career began in the Appalachian mountains of East Tennessee - it wasn’t an easy start for Dolly, being the fourth of 12 children, in a one room cabin (which you can experience at Dollywood) whereby she experienced poverty, heartbreak amongst the backdrop of very humble beginnings. But faith, family, home and music made it feel rich, as many of her songs allude to. She took the stories from these experiences and brought them to Nashville, establishing herself in a male-dominated industry to become one of the biggest icons in country music history - without ever losing sight of or forgetting where she came from.

When she decided to leave The Porter Wagoner Show in 1974 after seven years, she did not write an angry statement. She wrote ‘I Will Always Love You’, a non-romantic ode to a great friend. It went No. 1, and later became one of the most famous recordings in music history due to Whitney Houston's cover. To to really hit home just how expansive Dolly's career has been, even Elvis Presley wanted to record the track.

Dolly was thrilled, but the night before the recording session, Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker told her they would need at least half of the song’s publishing rights. Dolly refused. She later went onto say it broke her heart because she loved Elvis, but ‘I Will Always Love You’ was the most important song she owned and she couldn't give it away. For a young female songwriter to say ‘no’ to Elvis Presley at the height of his success, power and popularity says so much about Dolly.

She knew what she had written and she knew what it was worth. It was a decision that later revealed itself to be one of Dolly's best when, almost 20 years later, Whitney Houston turned it into one of the biggest songs of all time. And that right there is one of the many reasons why Dolly is one of the most celebrated country music icons, not just for her writing, singing or acting, but for her character.

That class extends well beyond music too. Her father never learned to read or write, so Dolly founded the Imagination Library in 1995. It now gives free books to young children across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland. As of June 2026, she’s gifted more than 325 millions books.

And the people who know and work with her speak just as highly of the person as they do the artist. Reba McEntire has championed Dolly as professional, fun, funny and witty. Keith Urban recently called her fearless, a trailblazer and “one of one”.

For country music, Dolly is more than one of its biggest stars. She is one of its greatest ambassadors.

She showed that music rooted in Appalachia could cross genres, generations and borders while remaining unmistakably country, even through eras that weren’t particularly popular for country music. She transcended it. Her songs contain everything the genre stands for through its music, history, honesty, humanity and stories.

So no, Dolly Parton receiving another Lifetime Achievement Award is not particularly surprising, but the genre is infinitely richer because of her, in every respect. And how lucky are we, that country gets to call her one of our own. We feel pretty confident speak for fans across country, Americana and roots when we say, Dolly... we will always love you.