An hour before the 2018 Academy of Country Music Awards kicked off, host Reba McEntire gave her fans two thumbs up in an Instagram post.
“The night has started,” McEntire wrote in the caption.
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The ceremony starts at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. McEntire is returning as host, and was also nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year.
The Country music legend is up against Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert.
Even if McEntire does not win, she still has a shelf-full of ACM awards with 10 regular honors and six special achievement awards. She received the Career Achievement award in 2010 and won Top Female Vocalist in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1991 and 1994. She has also been nominated for Entertainer of the Year ten times.
This year’s nominees for Entertainer of the Year are all men. Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, Garth Brooks and Jason Aldean are up for the top award.
Lauren Alaina has already won New Female Vocalist of the Year, Brett Young won New Male Vocalist, and Midland won New Vocal Group of the Year.
The nominees for Album of the Year are Little Big Town’s Breaker, Jon Pardi’s California Sunrise, Stapleton’s From a Room: Volume 1, Thomas Rhett’s Life Changes and Old Dominion’s Happy Endings.
In an interview with Us Weekly, McEntire said she will avoid talking politics during the awards.
“This year the idea is to have fun,” McEntire said. “There’s a lot of political things you can address, stuff going on in the world. That’s not our theme; our theme is to have fun, not to be mean, not to be catty, just to have a great night of entertainment, great music, seeing everybody and introducing new music.”
She continued, “It’s going to be a fun night … I want it to be positive and uplifting and so does everybody at the ACM. They first came to me and said, ‘Our theme this year is fun. Let’s go have fun.’ I said, ‘Absolutely, I’m for it.’”
Photo credit: Instagram/Reba McEntire
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