The Academy of Country Music announced today the first round of performers for the 55th ACM Awards.
Host and nominee Keith Urban and nominee Miranda Lambert have been added as performers. Lambert will also perform with nominated artists Lindsay Ell, Caylee Hammack, Elle King, Ashley McBryde and Tenille Townes for a live television premiere performance of the song, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.”
The awards will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Sunday, April 5 (live at 8 p.m. ET/delayed PT) on the CBS Television Network, and will be available to stream live and on-demand across digital platforms on the CBS All Access subscription service.
Not surprisingly, considering the number of events that have been postponed or cancelled due to coronavirus concerts, the announcement is accompanied by a notification at the top of the press release: “STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC®,” it reads. “The Academy of Country Music® and dick clark productions remain committed to serving fans and our Country Music community by producing THE 55TH ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS™ live from Las Vegas on April 5 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. We are closely monitoring the situation along with the MGM team, who are in continuous contact with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Southern Nevada Health District, and other agencies and experts for guidance. We will take every precaution to ensure the safety of our artists, staff, crew, guests and attendees.”
It was expected that last spring’s ACMs host, Reba McEntire, might not be resuming the role after she stepped over to host the CMA Awards this past November. Hosts in recent years have mostly involved duos, with Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton pairing up with one another or McEntire.
The ACMs announced that Morris, Rhett and producer Dann Huff led the nomination total, with five each, followed by Dan + Shay, Shelton, Old Dominion and Justin Bieber with four. However, the math gets a little tricky with the ACMs and is best explained with a lot of asterisks, since for their tallies, unlike most other music awards, they give performers multiple nods in a single category if they also co-wrote or co-produced as well as sang the nominated material.