Shania Twain will host the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards for the first time, taking the reins of country music’s longest-running awards show when it streams live from Las Vegas on Sunday, May 17, 2026.
The show will air on Prime Video at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT and 5 p.m. PT from MGM Grand Garden Arena, with fans also able to watch on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch and in the Amazon Music app. Twain said she was thrilled to host the ACM Awards in Las Vegas, which she described as a place that feels like home, and said it was an honor to be part of a night celebrating country music’s biggest stars, especially with so many women leading nominations this year. She also said she could not wait to welcome fans and artists to an unforgettable night.
Her selection puts one of the genre’s most recognizable names at the center of a show that has tried to balance tradition with a newer streaming audience. The ACM Awards were established in 1966 and began exclusively livestreaming on Prime Video in 2022, a move that made them the first major awards ceremony to do so in collaboration with the platform.
Twain arrives with real history at the awards. She is a three-time ACM winner, taking top new female vocalist and album of the year for The Woman in Me in 1996 before winning entertainer of the year in 2000. In 2023, the academy also presented her with the Poet’s Award for her songwriting career. She hosted the People’s Choice Country Awards in September 2024, the second and apparently final edition of that show, but this will be her first time leading the ACM telecast.
Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside said the organization was honored to welcome Twain as host this year and said the group could not imagine a more fitting icon to follow Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire. Parton and Brooks co-hosted the 2023 ACM Awards, and McEntire hosted the last two years. For the academy, Twain offers a familiar face with enough star power to carry the Las Vegas show forward while keeping the event tied to its country roots. That is the answer to the obvious question around this announcement: the academy is not just filling a slot, it is choosing a host who already belongs to the awards’ history and now gets to help define its next chapter.
