The Academy of Country Music Awards — colloquially dubbed country’s “party of the year” — kick off in Frisco today.
The star-studded affair takes place at 7 p.m. at the Ford Center at The Star and will be hosted by Reba McEntire for the 18th time. For those tuning in remotely, the show will be livestreamed on Prime Video and Amazon Music’s Twitch channel.
Performers will walk the red carpet this afternoon and The Dallas Morning News will be stationed there to chat with country’s biggest names and capture any eye-grabbing looks.
The red carpet show will be streamed on Twitch from 6 to 7 p.m.
Coffey Anderson comes with jokes and cool pants
Coffey Anderson, a singer-songwriter from Bangs, Texas — about three hours southwest of Dallas — stunned on the red carpet with pants he joked were made from his late grandmother’s couch (spoiler alert: they were from Fashion Nova’s men’s line). On his white cowboy hat he had tucked a turkey feather and a sliver of the American flag.
Anderson may be best known for his presence on social media, where he promotes some of his songs.
“I had record labels turn me down and I saw YouTube,” he said. “I saw a monkey riding a unicycle … a million people watching a monkey. I was like maybe they’ll listen to me sing.”
Standing on the red carpet, he said he feels “so much gratitude” for country music.
“This is so special to see some of my heroes become friends, some of my peers become legends,” he said.
He gave a shoutout to McEntire, tonight’s host, as well as Garth Brooks and Dwight Yoakam.
Wilder Blue frontman arrives
The Wilder Blue frontman Zane Williams wore a white long sleeve dress shirt with a scenic vista panel at the top — an E-Bay find his wife, Jodi, sourced.
The band, who hail from Texas, recently dropped a crowd-funded project Still in the Runnin’.
When asked what he was running toward, Williams replied: “Something better, something better than where you’ve been … You’ve been grinding a long time, but you still got a long way to go, so you can’t stop.”
The red carpet has opened
Plano native Cheryl Kool, 58, and Brad Davidow, 52, from Chicago, met in a cordoned-off section for seat-fillers. Scattered cheers emerged from the area, as people posed for photographs near the entrance.
“You have no idea the work that goes into it, behind the scenes, and the number of people that put in sweat and tears to really make it all happen,” Kool said as the ceremony’s organizers bustled around.
Davidow is looking forward to catching Jelly Roll on the red carpet while Kool is most excited to see McEntire, “the queen of country music.”
“I love that country music has surged because it’s always been my personal favorite,” he said. “I think because it just touches my soul in a way that no other music does for me.”
What to know about the 2025 ACM Awards
Among the Texas nominees are Grapevine-raised rapper-turned-country singer Post Malone and East Texas darling Kacey Musgraves.
Malone is competing in five categories, including album of the year with his crossover 2024 project, F-1 Trillion.
Meanwhile, Musgraves is a contender for female artist of the year and song of the year for her single “The Architect” off the album Deeper Well.
The Academy of Country Music Awards first arrived in Texas for the 50th show in 2015 at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium. The party migrated north to Frisco in 2023 and it’s stayed there since.
“We just really fell in love with The Star District,” said the ACM‘s CEO, Damon Whiteside in a recent interview, citing the area’s infrastructure and the stadium‘s 12,000-seat capacity.
He also praised the energy from Texas’ country fanbase (and those who traveled for the celebration).
“They come out and they’re there to have fun,” he said. “They’re on their feet the whole time. They’re singing all the songs.”
Reflecting on this year’s milestone 60th show, Whiteside hinted at a program dedicated to the superstars of country music’s past, present and future — a point brought home by the previously announced 12-minute medley of ACM songs of the year from the last six decades.
Over 30 performers will take the ACM stage, according to the ceremony’s executive producer, Raj Kapoor. The lineup features up-and-comers like Jelly Roll and Shaboozey as well as established country artists like Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert.
