See Keith Urban’s Performance of ‘Wasted Time’ During ‘ACM Presents: Our Country’

Keith Urban was supposed to host the ACM Awards in Las Vegas on April 5, but instead, he was one of the featured artists who sent in a video performance for the special broadcast ACM Presents: Our Country. Urban opened the show with his 2016 hit "Wasted Time," remarking that the song seemed to have a sudden relevance amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced millions of people to self-quarantine. After thanking host Gayle King for the introduction, Urban offered another thank you from himself, his wife Nicole Kidman and their two daughters.

"I also want to add my thanks, me, Nic, our girls, we all say thank you so much to all the first responders out there," he said. "Everybody in the health care field, all over, we thank you so much. The public safety officers as well, we say thank you. There is an insurmountable amount of people who are out there on the front lines working day and night and risking so much for so many. So we say thank you." Urban continued, "This is a very very strange time. And the one thing I believe is that music is an incredible healing mechanism and an incredible way of us to come together and connect especially at times like this."

The 2020 ACM Awards have been rescheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 16 and Urban is still set to host the show. "I of course was meant to be hosting the ACMs tonight in Vegas, but we are now looking to be doing them September 16," he said on Sunday. "I cannot wait to be a part of that."

The Australia native then reflected on his song choice for the evening, explaining, "I was trying to think of what song to do and I thought about this one because in a lot of ways, the thing I miss — there's so many things I miss right now — I miss being around people, I miss being able to play live music and be around people and be together as people, as humans being together. And we wrote this song a while ago, it's called 'Wasted Time,' but I feel in some ways it's taken on a different kind of meaning right now."

Urban then delivered a stripped-down take on the raucous song, strumming his guitar as he sang, managing to capture the track's infectious energy with just his voice and an acoustic guitar. "I wanna say to every one of you, remember that we get through this like everything," he concluded. "Together. Together we are stronger and I promise you, we will get through this and I'll be seeing you guys in September to truly celebrate."