History Made as Mickey Guyton Named ACM Awards Host

Mickey Guyton
photo from ACM

Academy of Country Music just announced Mickey Guyton will host the ACM Awards, making her the first black female artist to host the show.

“Last year I had the opportunity to perform at the Academy of Country Music Awards with someone I long admired, Keith Urban, and this year I am incredibly excited to share hosting duties with him,” said Guyton in a release. “As I’ve said before ‘if you can see it, you can be it,’ and it’s such an honor to step onto the ACM stage as the first-ever Black woman to host the show. Over the years, the Academy of Country Music has always been a home for me through opportunities both onstage and throughout their work on diversity and inclusion. This is a moment of great significance for me and I am so thrilled to share it with all the fans.”

Mickey Guyton was born in Arlington, Texas and began singing in church at a young age. She was drawn to a variety of artists with big voices including Dolly Parton, Cece Winans, Whitney Houston and LeAnn Rimes. After signing to Capitol Records Nashville, Mickey’s first appearance was an all-star concert at the White House captured by PBS.

In 2015 she released her self-titled EP featuring her debut single “Better Than You Left Me.” The following year she was nominated for her first Academy of Country Music Award for New Female Vocalist. Mickey returned to the ACM Awards in 2019 performing “I’m Standing With You” from the BREAKTHROUGH movie soundtrack alongside Chrissy Metz, Carrie Underwood, Lauren Alaina and Maddie & Tae. This last year, Mickey performed her first solo ACM Awards performance of “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” with labelmate Keith Urban’s accompaniment on piano. The performance, which HITS called “…a Whitney Houston/Beyoncé power-vocal rendition of the glass-ceiling reckoning…” was named one of the best performances of the night. Mickey released her EP, Bridges, last September, which includes “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”, hailed by Variety as “country music’s song of the year, as well as, “Black Like Me,” a song Mickey co-wrote in March 2019 at a cross-genre writing camp. Due to demand, “Black Like Me” was released in June 2020 and was named one of the Top 10 songs of 2020 by NPR, Billboard and The Associated Press. Mickey recently made history as the first Black female solo artist to earn a GRAMMY nomination in a country category (Best Country Solo Performance) for “Black Like Me” which she will perform as part of the awards ceremony Sunday, March 14.

Joining Guyton will be Keith Urban, who will return for a second year as a host. CBS presents the 56th ACM Awards® live from three iconic country music venues: the Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, and The Bluebird Cafe Sunday, April 18, 7 pm on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.

Read also about the ACM Nominations here.