Chris Stapleton Absolutely Dominates The 2016 ACM Awards

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It was another stunning night for Kentucky songwriter Chris Stapleton as he dominated the 2016 ACM Awards held Sunday (4-3) night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Stapleton walked away with Song of the Year for “Nobody To Blame,” Album of the Year for “Traveller,” and Male Vocalist of the Year as well. Along with an earlier win for New Male Vocalist of the Year, that give him four total awards, and the biggest take of the night.

Jason Aldean was the only other big winner, taking home Entertainer of the Year. Miranda Lambert won Female Vocalist of the Year.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. I thought sure we were going to get ‘Girl Crushed’ on this one,” Stapleton said when he won for Song of the Year. Despite being a front-runner for the other awards, the win for “Nobody To Blame” may have been the biggest surprise. Later when Little Big Town was accepting their award for Vocal Group of the Year they said, “Thank you Chris Stapleton for not being a group.”

Stapleton was joined by producer Dave Cobb on stage when he accepted Album of the Year, which was handed out by Garth Brooks via satellite from Ottawa. “Garth Brooks just gave me an award!” Stapleton said.

Stapleton was up for a total of five awards on the night, and went into Sunday’s festivities already scoring the trophy for New Male Vocalist of the Year. The only award he didn’t win was for Vocal Event of the Year. He adds his ACM hardware on top of winning two Grammy Awards in February, and where it all began—the CMA Awards in November when he shocked the world by walking away with New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, and Album of the Year. Along with the momentum from a marquee collaboration with Justin Timberlake on the CMA’s, Stapleton has been skyrocketed into country music superstardom in the last six months.

Chris has now won 6 of the 7 country music industry awards he’s been nominated for, and 8 of the 10 awards if you include the Grammy Awards. Meanwhile artist like Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt won nothing Sunday night.

On top of all the awards show hardware, Chris Stapleton’s debut album Traveller has officially sold over 1 million copies now, meaning Traveller has beat out Florida Georgia Line’s latest album Anything Goes in sales, and has beat out reigning CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan’s album Kill The Lights in sales. Simply put, Chris Stapleton is now the best-selling artist on all of country music in the last 18 months in regards to album sales, and has been in the Top 15 of the Billboard 200 for 21 straight weeks. And as of a couple of weeks ago, his current radio single “Nobody To Blame” officially cracked the Top 10 on country radio, concurring yet another challenge for an authentic country artist.

The only question left is, where can Chris Stapleton go from here, and will he take country music with him?

2016 ACM Awards Winners:

 

  • Entertainer of the Year – Jason Aldean
  • Album of the Year – Chris Stapleton
  • Song of the Year – Chris Stapleton
  • Male Vocalist of the Year- Chris Stapleton
  • Female Vocalist of the Year – Miranda Lambert
  • Vocal Group of the Year – Little Big Town
  • Vocal Duo of the Year – Florida Georgia Line
  • Single of the Year – Thomas Rhett “Die a Happy Man”
  • Video of the Year – Eric Church’s “Mr. Misunderstood”

 

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