Shania Twain will host the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, May 17, when the Acm Awards 2026 return to Las Vegas after three years in Frisco, Texas. The show will stream live from MGM Grand Garden Arena and begin at 8 p.m. ET on Prime Video and Twitch.
The lineup gives the night a familiar center of gravity and a new one at the same time. Megan Moroney leads the field with nine nominations, including Female Artist of the Year, while Miranda Lambert, Ella Langley and Lainey Wilson are also among the top nominees. Kacey Musgraves, Thomas Rhett and Little Big Town are set to perform, giving the broadcast a mix of radio staples and newer names that have pushed into the front of the country conversation.
For Twain, the hosting job is a first. She said, “This is fun to me,” and described the role as a way to celebrate artists across the format, including newer acts and performers who have been building momentum in recent years. She added that it gives her a chance to reconnect with “my favorite genre,” calling country her “root music” and saying she wants to do her best job representing it.
That personal stake matters because Twain is not just another guest star stepping in for a one-night cameo. She has won three ACM awards over her career, including Top New Female Vocalist and Album of the Year for The Woman in Me in 1996, Entertainer of the Year in 2000, the Double-Diamond Award in 1999 and the ACM Poet’s Award in 2022. Her return to the ACM stage as host also follows a year in which Reba McEntire hosted while Ella Langley led the nominations with eight, making this the second straight year that both the host and the year’s top nominee are women.
Twain has already signaled a particular interest in Langley. Earlier this month, she appeared on the Today show and said that when she first heard Langley’s song, she thought, “Wow, this is the real thing.” She said she realized how much she had been missing hearing that authenticity and added, “So I’m very excited to meet her.”
The timing gives Sunday’s show added pull beyond the trophies themselves. Twain released her new song, “Dirty Rosie,” on Wednesday, and the ACMs arrive as the awards return to Las Vegas after a three-year run at the Star in Frisco. The move back to MGM Grand Garden Arena restores the city that long served as a familiar backdrop for one of country music’s biggest television nights.
What the broadcast should make clear is that the field now belongs to a blend of established stars and newer voices, with Moroney in the lead and Twain helping frame the night. The unanswered question is not whether the show will have marquee names. It is whether the ACMs can use a Las Vegas homecoming, and a host with Twain’s history, to make the genre’s next chapter feel as authoritative as its past.
