Reba McEntire, LeAnn Rimes Open ACM Awards 2025 With Country Hits

Clint Black followed by tipping his hat to the late Glen Campbell with “Rhinestone Cowboy,” Campbell’s first Number One country hit of the Seventies, and the ACMs’ song victor in 1975. Black wore an appropriately sparkling blazer and even took out his cell phone at the end in a cheeky nod to the line, “Getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know/And offers comin’ over the phone.”

In a poignant moment, Wynonna Judd reprised her and her mother Naomi’s 1984 hit “Why Not Me,” and the ACM winner in 1984, for a touch of Eighties New Traditionalism. (Naomi Judd died in 2022.) Next up, LeAnn Rimes represented the Nineties — Nashville’s pop crossover moment — with a swooning, orchestral rendition of Bill Mack’s “Blue,” which won Song of the Year in 1996.

Little Big Town shook up the timeline a bit next, taking the stage to deliver a rendition of their lonesome gem, “Girl Crush,” which won Song of the Year in 2015. They were followed by Dan + Shay and their massive crossover hit “Tequila, which won Song of the Year in 2018.

(If you’re wondering what happened to the first decade of the 2000s, the ACMs previously announced that Sugarland would take part in the opening, ostensibly to perform their 2008 SOTY winner, “Stay.” The performance, however, was scrapped after Jennifer Nettles was unable to make the show, with her bandmate Kristian Bush revealing later in the show that she’d unfortunately gotten sick.)

What Song of the Year contender from this year might one day appear in another 12-minute medley? The nominees include “4x4xU” (performed by Lainey Wilson), “The Architect” (Kacey Musgraves), “Dirt Cheap” (Cody Johnson), “I Had Some Help” (Post Malone and Morgan Wallen), and “You Look Like You Love Me” (Ella Langley and Riley Green).