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Lainey Wilson took home the biggest accolade of the evening at the 2024 ACM Awards, with the ’Watermelon Moonshine’ hitmaker receiving the prestigious Entertainer of the Year trophy.
The Louisiana singer-songwriter battled it out with her fellow nominees, Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll and Cody Johnson, to emerge victorious.
A visibly moved Lainey shared, “First of all, I just want to say thank you Lord Jesus Christ, thank you to my team who fight for me every single day, my band who show up”, before going on to reminisce, “I remember being a little girl and I would climb out to the top of my roof...and I would count all the stars and see the planes flying over my little town with 200 people, and I would dream of being in one of those planes”.
The much-loved country megastar reflected on how far she's come since then, but how she stays grounded throughout all the numerous awards, No. 1 singles and successes she's enjoyed of late, “The funny thing is, I still feel like that little girl - I still climb up on the roof and look at the stars - except I feel like I'm a little more eye-level now”.
Aptly, this meant Lainey Wilson book-ended the 2024 ACM Awards by kicking off the star-studded show with an electrifying rendition of her new song, ’Hang Tight Honey’, before providing one of the final moments of the ceremony by taking home the 2024 Entertainer of the Year gong, before Reba McEntire's grand finale set.
Elsewhere during the ceremony, Lainey triumphed in the Female Artist of the Year and Music Event of the Year categories, the latter of which was her Jelly Roll duet, ‘Save Me’.
Chris Stapleton took the Entertainer of the Year crown at the 2023 instalment, with the ‘White Horse’ hitmaker beating out fierce competition from Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen and more, but Stapleton had to settle only for Album of the Year this time around.
In addition to Entertainer of the Year, viewers were able to witness a stacked roster of performers as part of the 2024 ACM Awards line-up, including Lainey WIlson, Nate Smith and Avril Lavigne, Jelly Roll, Thomas Rhett, Post Malone, Cody Johnson and more. The star-studded ceremony returned to the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas for the second year in a row, with Reba McEntire leading proceedings for the 17th time.
For more on the 2024 ACM Awards, see below:
