“With respect and love to the victims, we celebrate our music tonight,” Jason Aldean said into the camera, joining fellow stars Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris and Thomas Rhett in paying tribute to the victims of the Route 91 Harvest tragedy, their words supplanting the traditional, pull-out-all-the-stops production number that starts the evening.
ACM Awards host Reba McEntire called out previous hosting tandems Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley, plus Bryan and Blake Shelton. Operating solo, McEntire said, “I guess they figured it only takes one woman to do the job of two men!”
The country music community, returning to Las Vegas six months after a massive shooting in the city, remembered the victims not in song, but with words to open the Academy of Country Music Awards.
Beyonce has paid tribute Saturday to historically black colleges and universities and also reunited with Destiny’s Child during her headlining performance at Coachella, which was delayed for a year because of her pregnancy.
