Lainey Wilson Wins ACM Female Vocalist: ‘I Just Met Dolly Parton!’
Lainey Wilson won her first Female Artist of the Year from the ACM Awards tonight (5/11). Last year (2022), Lainey won the ACM’s New Female Artist award. Dolly Parton presented the award after Garth stepped away. He said that whoever wins will never forget getting the honor from Dolly. And that’s surely the case.
When she took the stage to accept the honor, Wilson said, “I can’t believe I just met Dolly Parton first of all, whoa! I want t say thank you to my father, thank you, Jesus, for this; this is absolutely insane.” A huge Parton fan, her first album Sayin’ What I’m Thinking’ has a song called “W.W.D.D.” That stands for “What would Dolly do?”
She then thanked her family and her team. She then said, “And ladies in this category, thank you so much. I am up here because of you all. Because of people like Dolly Parton paving the way. And I tell you what, everybody in this category didn’t just wind up there by happenstance; they have worked their fingers to the bone, they have put blood, sweat, and tears, and years into this. Made so many sacrifices missing a lot of weddings, a lot of funerals. Not that I want to go to all of them anyway, but I’m just saying.”
She concluded her speech, “Oh my, goodness! For the little girls watching this: this right here is thanks to hard work. If you’re gonna be a dreamer, you better be a doer.”
RELATED: Lainey Wilson Breaks Record With Latest Number One
Wilson recently released a new video for her song “Grease,” and the latest video has her making some serious dance moves along with some breakdancing country fans she spotted at a show.
Lainey posted a clip of the new video on Instagram. She wrote, “Grabbed me a @sonicdrivein Strawberry Sprite Zero and threw ourselves a parking lot party for the Grease music video. I saw these guys about a year ago at one of my shows in Charlotte, NC, and they were bustin’ a move out in the crowd. I thought it was the coolest thing they were breakdancing to country music, so I tracked them down on socials and asked them if they’d want to be a part of this official video..now, here we are! Y’all check out the official video now!”
Fans loved the new video, and many responded to her post with one writing, “So good and love that you tracked them down!” Another fan commented, “That is so fun!” One more fan said, “Very North Louisiana-like to have @sonicdrivein in the video… girl knows we gotta have our sonic drinks.”
See that post here.