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Backstage Country

ACM Announces HARDY, Lainey Wilson Are Early Winners

The Academy of Country Music has announced two more early winners: HARDY has won the Artist/Songwriter Award. HARDY, along with Lainey Wilson, won the Visual Media award for their dramatic…

ACM Announces HARDY, Lainey Wilson Are Early Winners
Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images

The Academy of Country Music has announced two more early winners: HARDY has won the Artist/Songwriter Award. HARDY, along with Lainey Wilson, won the Visual Media award for their dramatic "Wait In The Truck" video. The ACMs take place in Texas tonight (5/11) on Amazon Prime starting at 7 pm ET with hosts Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks.

The ACM posted the winners on Instagram. They wrote in the first winner's post, "The most nominated artist at the 58th #ACMawards has just been named Artist-Songwriter of the Year! Congrats, @hardy. Don't miss his performance. Free to stream LIVE tomorrow on @PrimeVideo."

See that post here.

The ACMs then posted the Visual Media of the Year winner, writing, "'wait in the truck' by newly announced Artist-Songwriter of the Year @hardy featuring @laineywilsonmusic just won Visual Media of the Year! Congratulations to you both, #ACMawards."

Lainey posted the news of her latest award win on her Insta Stories writing, "Grateful. Love you @hardy."

See that post here.

Earlier this week (5/9), ACM announced the winners for the New Male and New Female Artists of the Year. Zach Bryan won in the New Male Artist category, and Hailey Whitters won in the New Female Artist category.

The ACM posted to their Instagram for Zach, "Something in the orange tells us that @zachlanebryan is the WINNER of ACM New Male Artist of the Year! Congratulations! #ACMawards."

See that post here.

For Hailey's win, the ACM posted, "The ACM New Female Artist of The Year is... @haileywhitters! We can't wait for her DEBUT #ACMawards performance — FREE to stream Thursday on @PrimeVideo!"

See that post here.

Zach posted the news of his win on his Insta stories writing, "Thank you so much, guys."

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.