2019 ACM Awards: Lindsay Ell Becomes Emotional Over New Female Artist Nomination

Lindsay Ell received her first-ever ACM Awards nomination, for New Female Artist, resulting in more than a few tears from the rising star, all caught on video.

After Ell was tricked into believing she was meeting someone for a photo shoot, she was surprised by dozens of people working for and with her, all on hand – with champagne – to celebrate her good news.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Ell said with tears to Jon Loba, the executive vice-president of Ell’s label, Broken Bow Records. “I’m so grateful. I love you guys so much.”

“I couldn’t have done this without every single one of you,” Ell continued.

The singer earned plenty of praise from Loba, who admitted he has been a fan of Ell from the beginning.

“You make everybody want to lay down in the road for you,” Loba told Ell. “We are lucky enough to be those people. The greatest thing is, this is just the beginning.”

Ell, appropriately, finished the video by chugging champagne from a bottle.

The ACM nod is validation to Ell that her hard work is paying off, even though, as a female artist, she knows there is plenty more work to do. When asked if 2019 was going to be the year female artists finally got to be heard as much as their male counterparts, the 29-year-old acknowledged that she wasn’t quite sure.

“I really hope so. To be honest, I don’t know if we’re there yet,” Ell conceded to PopCulture.com. “I hope we are. I feel like it’s gotten so much better than where it was even two, three years ago. I think so many things would have to happen. I don’t know. I hope that is the case. I feel like there are so many talented female artists right now recording music and that country music fans who are women want to hear other women sing and write songs, but a lot would have to happen this year in order to make that a thing in my mind.”

The Canadian is working on her next record, which she promises will be at least partly written for herself.

“My brain literally breaks my album in half,” Ell told PopCulture.com. “I’m writing songs to get them to be played on the radio, but I’m writing half my record for me too. If I don’t have those songs that really show fans who I am, and what I’m going through, and say what I want to say that might not be the most commercial thing, then what’s the point of making your own record?”

Ell recently performed, as the only female artist, in the CRS New Faces Show. She shares the New Female Artist of the Year category with Danielle Bradbery, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce.

The 2019 ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Photo Credit: Getty / Jeff Kravitz