Lainey Wilson had a helluva night at the ACM Awards yesterday.
She was a big winner, and took home the trophy for Female Artist of the Year, as well as Album of the Year for her 2022 project Bell Bottom Country, in addition to winning awards for Visual Media of the Year and Music Event of the Year for her collaboration “wait in the truck” with HARDY.
And after co-host Dolly Parton presented her with her Female Artist of the Year trophy, Lainey gave a very touching and inspiring speech about how much the award means to her.
She thanked Jesus and her family for helping her get where she is today, as well as her team who helps keep the ball rolling and puts in so much work in behind the scenes so she can have the career she does in country music:
“I can’t believe I just met Dolly Parton, first of all, woo! This is crazy. First of all, I want to say thank you to my Father, thank you Jesus for this. This is absolutely insane.
Thank you to my family, they’re out here somewhere, my first believers. My label, Broken Bow, Red Light, Sony Music Publishing, WME, I have so many people on my team who fight for me every single day.
And the ladies in this category, I look up to y’all so much and I’m up here because of y’all. Because of people like Dolly Parton, paving the way.”
And being the classy lady that she is, Lainey acknowledged her fellow nominees in the category, Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce, saying that she knows from personal experience just how much each and every one of them have sacrificed over the years.
Lainey certainly has done so herself, living in a camper in a friends backyard for three years in Nashville while getting her start in the industry.
But my favorite part of her speech came when she told little girls watching everywhere that the trophy didn’t really represent a good album, but an incredible amount of “hard work.”
Lastly, she gave some perfect advice, saying very honestly and poignantly that “if you’re gonna be a dreamer, you better be a do-er”:
“Add I’ll tell you what, everybody in this category didn’t just wind there up here by happenstance. They have worked their fingers to the bone, they have put the blood, sweat tears and years and years into this.
Made so many sacrifices, missing a lot of weddings, a lot of funerals, not that I wanna go to all of them anyway, but I’m just sayin’.
Oh my goodness, y’all. For the little girls watching this, this right here, it stands for hard work. If you’re gonna be a dreamer, you better be a do-er.”
If there’s anyone qualified to get up there and say that, it’s Lainey.
I mean, how can you not just love her? She deserves all of this and so much more…
She also echoed that sentiment in a post on Instagram last night, saying she hopes her story can inspire anyone else out there with a dream to chase it and “work your dang butt off for it”:
I’ve been a fan of her for a long time, so it’s awesome to see Lainey at the forefront of mainstream country music and having everyone see every bit of the superstar she’s always been.
Lainey also performed with Jelly Roll on his single “Save Me,” and damn near set the stage on fire with a solo performance of her new single at country radio, “Grease”: