Keith Urban to Receive Prestigious Triple Crown Award at 2025 ACM Awards
Keith Urban will be honored at the 60th Academy of Country Music Awards on Thursday (May 8) with the prestigious Triple Crown Award.
The award signifies an achievement that only 11 previous artists have reached by winning new artist of the year and artist of the year in their respective genre or designation and entertainer of the year. Urban qualified by winning top new male vocalist in 2001, male vocalist of the year in 2005 and 2006, and entertainer of the year in 2019. He is the first artist to receive this honor on the ACM Awards telecast since Carrie Underwood in 2010 at the 45th ACM Awards. (The award is generally given at the ACM Honors in August now as it was to Lainey Wilson last year).
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Urban will be celebrated by Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton and Megan Moroney at the show.
Urban's 18-year span between top new artist and entertainer of the year is the longest of any recipient and is a testament to his enduring career. He is also the first non-American to win the award: Urban was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia.
'I came halfway around the world to live in Nashville,' says Urban who moved to Music City permanently in 1992. 'It was my dream since I was seven years old. All I ever wanted to do was write songs, try and get them recorded, try and get them on the radio, and now get them on streaming. And hopefully people like them and want to come and see me live. That's never changed.'
Urban recalls his first win for top new male and how unreal it felt even to be nominated.
'I remember the first time seeing my name in the nominees and it felt like when you go to the theme park and you can get your picture taken and put on the front of a fake Time Magazine as a souvenir. I felt like that,' he says. 'It wasn't real. It had that surreal quality.'
But it was real, and Urban has been on a winning streak ever since, landing 20 No. 1 songs on Billboard's Country Airplay chart and selling out arenas around the world.
When he won entertainer of the year, he'd been nominated and lost eight times before and was expecting the same result.
'I would just celebrate the nomination, not really thinking I'm going to win and I'm good with that. I was very content and grateful,' he says. 'And so [to win]— and in hindsight, now, for it to happen the year before COVID— was particularly a wonderful blessing because it was a big night, an arena full of people celebrating.'
He will soon be joined by people celebrating in full arenas later this month when his first tour in three years, the High and Alive world tour, kicks off May 22 in Orange Beach, Alabama.
He hopes that his Triple Crown victory can encourage other artists from outside the U.S. to come to Nashville and pursue their musical dreams as well.
'In particular, if it inspires some people from other countries who have a dream of coming to America, then that's a good thing,' he says. 'It took a lot of years of living in [Nashville] and becoming part of the community. But it's absolutely achievable if you're willing to put in the hard work and the time.'
The ACM Awards, hosted by Reba McEntire, will stream live for a global audience across 240+ countries and territories on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch on May 8, at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.
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