Shania Twain Honors Country Music ‘Sheroes’ Loretta, Dolly and Reba as ACM Awards Host

There are nights when country music feels less like a genre and more like a family reunion—and Sunday, May 17, was one of them. Shania Twain stepped onto the stage at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas as host of the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards, and the first thing she did was turn around and thank the women who made her career possible.

If you’ve been singing along to “Any Man of Mine” since the mid-’90s, this was a moment worth pausing for.

A first-time host with decades of history on that stage

Twain, 60, made her ACM Awards hosting debut this year, taking the reins from Reba McEntire. And from the moment she opened the show, you could tell she was savoring every second.

“Thank you Las Vegas. Thank you Lainey [Wilson] and congratulations on your wedding last Sunday. Like Lainey, I cannot sit still either because I tell you I am so full of energy and excitement that I am hosting the concert of the year for the first time ever,” Twain told the crowd.

“Tonight the ACM awards are choosing Vegas, and I sure do love this town and nothing makes me happier than being with these amazing stars sitting right here in the front.”

Then came the part that hit home for so many longtime fans. Twain paid homage to a slew of country music greats—including the women who hosted the annual event before her: Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire.

For anyone who grew up with “Coal Miner’s Daughter” spinning on the record player or “Jolene” coming through a kitchen radio, hearing those names spoken from that stage felt like a thank-you note to our own memories, too.

Walking in some pretty incredible footsteps

Twain has been open about what this hosting gig means to her. “I’m thrilled to be hosting the 61st ACM Awards in Las Vegas, a place that feels like home,” she said in an April press release, according to Us Weekly. “It’s such an honor to be part of this incredible night celebrating country music’s biggest stars, especially with so many talented women leading nominations this year. I can’t wait to welcome all of the fans and artists out for this unforgettable night.”

ACM CEO Damon Whiteside echoed that excitement when the announcement was first made. “We are honored to welcome global music superstar Shania Twain as our host this year. We couldn’t imagine a more perfect icon to follow our previous iconic hosts Dolly, Garth [Brooks] and Reba, blending one of the most important nights in country music with the excitement of Las Vegas.”

Whiteside also nodded to Twain’s long history with the show: “Shania has an impressive history on the ACM Awards stage, including her win of the coveted ACM Entertainer of the Year trophy and receiving the ACM Poet’s Award honoring her prolific songwriting career.”

A trophy case full of memories

If you’ve followed Twain’s career from the start, the numbers will feel familiar. She has won five ACM Awards and received 14 nominations over the years. Her honors include Top New Female Vocalist and Album of the Year for The Woman in Me in 1996, the Double Diamond Award for both The Woman in Me and Come on Over in 1999, Entertainer of the Year in 2000 and the Poet’s Award in 2022.

For fans who wore out cassette tapes of those albums in their cars, that timeline reads like a soundtrack to a couple of decades of real life—first apartments, road trips, weddings, kitchen dance parties.

Why this night meant so much to her

Days before the show, Twain told Billboard what she was most looking forward to. “It’s a chance for me to just get back with everybody,” she said in the interview, published Tuesday, May 12. “It’s one of the rare moments when I get the chance to see everybody and catch up with a lot of the newer artists. A lot of them I have not met yet, and I’m excited to just be among the whole experience of the ACMs.”

After hosting the People’s Choice Country Awards in 2024, Twain came in with a hosting style that’s all her own—warm, a little unpredictable and decidedly hers.

“I like to put my own personality into things because I’m a terrible reader. If I rely entirely on the teleprompter, I’m definitely going to stumble and get lost,” she explained. “I just really like having fun and going with the flow, getting into the excitement that I’ll be sharing with the artists who are performing and up for awards.”

The Reba effect

And of course, no conversation about ACM hosting is complete without Reba McEntire, 71, who has helmed the show 18 times.

“When it comes to Reba, she’s flawless,” Twain said. “I’m definitely more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of person, very spontaneous, which makes it a different style and character to hosting something. But Reba is everything. She’s funny, she’s a great actress, which makes her really good at getting the flow of speaking and cadence. She’s just a pro.”

Two women, two styles—and a whole lot of history connecting them. For fans who’ve loved them both, that’s the real headline.