Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood’s ACMs Elbow Bump Is So Perfectly 2020
Carrie Underwood's first words onstage after winning Entertainer of the Year at the 2020 ACM Awards on Wednesday night (Sept. 18) were succinctly perfect.
"2020, man," she said into the mic, to an empty Grand Ole Opry House and the fans watching from home, her tone pretty well summing up how we're all feeling in this wild year.
Her "celebration" with show host Keith Urban, too, was just what you'd expect in 2020: a brief elbow bump as she entered the spotlight and he left it. The ACMs strictly adhered to social distancing rules and CDC, state and local guidelines regarding events during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Urban and Underwood are pals, and former collaborators, too. In 2016, the two teamed up for the song "The Fighter," which appears on Urban's Ripcord album. It was a Top 5 Billboard hit for the pair the following year.
Everything about Underwood's ACM Entertainer of the Year win was so very 2020, in fact: In a shocking end to the awards show, she and Thomas Rhett tied for the victory in the category. Urban chuckled as he opened the envelope revealing the news, and both artists — who were competing against Luke Bryan, Luke Combs and Eric Church for the prize — appeared stunned as they took the stage to accept the award (separately, of course).
Rhett's win was his first for ACM Entertainer of the Year; Underwood, however, has won the prize two other times. Her Wednesday night victory makes her the woman with the most ACM Entertainer of the Year wins in the show's history.