Lainey Wilson, Ella Langley and Riley Green each scored three honors at the 59th annual CMA Awards show Wednesday night, with Wilson taking away the most coveted prize, entertainer of the year.
Surprises were in order in some of the categories considered long held by intractable repeat winners, Cody Johnson won for best male vocalist, finally moving Chris Stapleton out of that position, while the Red Clay Strays won vocal group of the year, supplanting the seemingly indomitable Old Dominion.
Wilson, the show’s host, won for album of the year — for “Whirlwind” — and female vocalist as well as entertainer of the year.
Langley and Green were duet partners whose teaming on “You Look Like You Love Me” landed both of them wins single of the year, song of the year and music video of the year.
“I was just so tickled to be hosting this thing tonight,” Wilson said upon winning the climactic award, assuring the crowd she would’ve been OK with a loss, given what a win her first solo hosting gig turned out to be. After giving her speech, she laughed upon remembering that it was her duty to provide closing remarks for the show, too. “I forgot I was hosting this thing,” she admitted. “Thank you for letting me run my mouth on this legendary stage and celebrate the best genre in the world, country dang music.”
“Mama, daddy, look, check it out,” Wilson said while receiving an earlier award. “I wrote this during a time of my life that was constantly changing like a lot of y’all down here. And i just remember being that little 11-year-old girl who would come home from school and pick up my guitar and pour my heart and soul into that guitar, and that’s how I navigated and communicated. And that’s exactly what I did these last two years of my life, when I felt my life was changing but I still felt exactly the same.”
(Excerpt) More and a List of Winners @ Variety