54th Academy of Country Music Awards

The 54th Academy of Country Music Awards was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 7, 2019. Nominations were announced on February 20, 2019 by Reba McEntire during CBS This Morning, with Chris Stapleton and Dan + Shay leading with six nominations each. McEntire returned to host the awards for the sixteenth time.
Jason Aldean was presented with the ACM's rare honor "Artist of the Decade" by previous holder George Strait.

Winners and Nominees

The winners are shown in bold.

Entertainer of the Year	Album of the Year
Keith Urban * Jason Aldean * Luke Bryan * Kenny Chesney * Chris Stapleton	Golden Hour — Kacey Musgraves *Dan + Shay — Dan + Shay *Desperate Man — Eric Church *From A Room: Volume 2 — Chris Stapleton *The Mountain — Dierks Bentley
Female Artist of the Year	Male Artist of the Year
Kacey Musgraves * Miranda Lambert Ashley McBryde Maren Morris *Carrie Underwood	Thomas Rhett Dierks Bentley Luke Combs * Chris Stapleton * Keith Urban
Group of the Year	Duo of the Year
Old Dominion * Lady Antebellum * LANCO * Little Big Town * Midland	Dan + Shay Brothers Osborne Florida Georgia Line LoCash Maddie & Tae
Single of the Year	Song of the Year
"Tequila" — Dan + Shay * "Down to the Honkytonk" — Jake Owen * "Heaven" — Kane Brown * "Meant to Be — Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line * "Most People Are Good" — Luke Bryan	"Tequila" — Nicolle Galyon, Jordan Reynolds, Dan Smyers * "Break Up in the End" — Jessie Jo Dillon, Chase McGill, Jon Nite * "Broken Halos" — Mike Henderson, Chris Stapleton * "Meant to Be" — David Garcia, Tyler Hubbard, Joshua Miller, Bebe Rexha * "Space Cowboy" — Luke Laird, Shane McAnally, Kacey Musgraves * "Yours" — Casey Brown, Russell Dickerson, Parker Welling
New Female Artist of the Year	New Male Artist of the Year
Ashley McBryde Danielle Bradbery Lindsay Ell *Carly Pearce	Luke Combs Jimmie Allen Jordan Davis Michael Ray Mitchell Tenpenny
New Vocal Duo or Group of the Year	Video of the Year
Lanco High Valley Runaway June	"Drunk Girl" — Chris Janson; Dir. Jeff Venable * "Babe" — Sugarland ; Dir. Anthony Mandler * "Burn Out" — Midland; Dir. TK McKamy * "Burning Man" — Dierks Bentley ; Dir. Wes Edwards * "Shoot Me Straight" — Brothers Osborne; Dir. Wes Edwards * "Tequila" — Dan + Shay; Dir. Patrick Tracy
Music Event of the Year	Songwriter of the Year
"Burning Man" — Dierks Bentley and Brothers Osborne * "Drowns the Whiskey" — Jason Aldean and Miranda Lambert * "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" — David Lee Murphy and Kenny Chesney * "Keeping Score" — Dan + Shay and Kelly Clarkson * Meant to Be" — Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line	Shane McAnally * Ross Copperman * Ashley Gorley * Chas McGill * Josh Osborne

Presenters

Lauren Alaina

Beth Behrs

Clint Black

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Reception

In its review of the event, Rolling Stone Country praised that the ACMs took the opportunity to bring seasoned musicians Amanda Shires and Charlie Worsham "into the fold" by having them appear alongside Luke Combs and Keith Urban respectively but criticised that the ACMs did not introduce either of them or even feature them on screen. Worsham, who the reviewer believed should have been nominated for his own awards, performed "mostly in the shadows" and Shires, who "helped transform with her lyrical playing" was barely seen. Rolling Stone also praised Reba McEntire's hosting and the performances by Dierks Bentley and Brandi Carlile, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert and Ashley McBryde but stated that it was "baffling" that Kacey Musgraves, who had five nominations and won the CMA Award for Album of the Year and four Grammy Awards including Best Country Album and the all-genre Album of the Year for Golden Hour, did not perform. Musgraves' win made her only the third artist '' to win the ACM, CMA and Grammy Awards for Best Country Album as well as the all-genre Grammy for Album of the Year.