Musgraves, Church, Carter Family Headline 19th ACM
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- Kacey Musgraves will receive the ACM Spirit Award, given in memory of Merle Haggard, with the Academy citing her recent "Middle of Nowhere" album as reaffirming her standing as one of country's most important modern figures.
- Eric Church is getting the ACM Lifting Lives Award for his support of disaster relief and rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Helene, the Academy said.
- The Carter Family and Brett James will both receive the ACM Poet's Award posthumously; James wrote hits for Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, and Martina McBride, while the Carters helped birth the genre in the late 1920s.
- Leslie Fram is receiving the ACM Lift Every Voice Award for championing new talent, especially women, including founding CMT Next Women of Country in 2013 and co-founding Nashville Music Equality and Equal Access.
- Taylor Sheridan's "Landman" (Paramount+) wins the ACM Film Award for a movie or TV series prominently featuring country music, and the U.K.'s C2C: Country to Country festival — billed as Europe's biggest country gathering — takes the ACM International Award.
- Scott Zolke, a Loeb & Loeb partner, is getting the ACM Service Award specifically for representing the Academy in negotiations with Amazon Prime Video that secured a multi-year renewal for the ACM Awards to exclusively livestream on the platform.
- Carly Pearce will co-host the ceremony for the sixth time alongside first-timer Parker McCollum, with presale opening Wednesday to ACM members and general on-sale Friday via AXS.
Why it matters: Zolke's Service Award highlights the ACM's exclusive livestream deal with Amazon Prime Video — a concrete business detail often buried in awards-season coverage. The honoree range, spanning 1920s pioneers the Carter Family and the U.K.'s contemporary C2C festival alongside current stars, shows the Academy rewarding both deep heritage and international reach in a single ceremony.
