Hailey Whitters Named the 2023 ACM Awards’ New Female Artist of the Year

A huge congratulations are in order to our very own "Corn Star," Hailey Whitters: She's been named the 2023 New Female Artist of the Year ahead of the ACM Awards. The New Female Artist of the Year trophy was handed out late on Tuesday night (May 9), ahead of the 2023 awards show, which is set for Thursday night (May 11).

The Academy of Country Music announced its New Male and Female Artist of the Year winners on Twitter ahead of the show. In their tweet, the ACM also highlighted Whitters' upcoming ACMs debut, which is set to take place during the main broadcast.

Other contenders in the category included Priscilla Block, Megan Moroney, Caitlyn Smith and Morgan Wade.

Whitters' March 2022 album, Raised, was widely praised by critics as one of the finest country projects of that year — it even landed the No. 1 slot on Taste of Country's Top 10 albums of the year.

But it's not entirely fair to call this breakout hitmaker a newcomer. Whitters has been pursuing a country career since 2008, a struggle she wrote about in her song, "Ten Year Town." She has garnered acclaim for twangy, traditional and often '90s-inspired story songs, and her single, "Everything She Ain't," made a solid impact on the country radio charts.

Whitters' new ACM trophy marks her first major industry award, though she scored a nomination at the 2021 CMT Music Awards back in 2021. She was also up for a Grammy in 2022 as a songwriter, due to her work on the Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile duet, "A Beautiful Noise."

The 2023 ACM Awards is set to take place on Thursday (May 11) at Frisco, Texas' Ford Center. The show will stream on Amazon Prime Video, marking the second consecutive year that it has moved from television broadcast to a streaming-only format. Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton are co-hosting the show. It's Brooks' first time ever co-hosting a major awards show.