Miranda Lambert and a pregnant Elle King kick off ACM Awards in style with energetic performance

The nation’s top country music stars brought their glitz, glam and glow to Nashville, Tenn. Sunday night for the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards.

The ACM Awards, which celebrate the year’s best talent in the industry returned to the country music capital of the world for a star-studded night of stellar performances (Carrie Underwood! Miranda Lambert!) and A-list presenters (Dolly Parton! Martina McBride!)

More than 25 performers celebrated country music’s highest achievement from three well-known Nashville venues: the Bluebird Cafe, the Grand Ole Opry House and the Ryman Auditorium.

Miranda Lambert, the most nominated female artist in ACM history, opened the show with an energetic performance of the catchy “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home) in a duet with Elle King.

“Nashville is back,” Urban welcomed the socially distanced, masked and vaccinated audience of health care workers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Urban, ACM’s 2019 entertainer of the year, was joined by “Black Like Me” singer Mickey Guyton, who co-hosted the star-studded event.

While Urban returned to hosting duties for the second consecutive year, Guyton made country music history, as the first Black female artist to host the show.

The night’s first award, for group of the year, went to Old Dominion, and presented by singer Blanco Brown, who was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident on Aug. 31 2020.

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