Florida Georgia Line Honored With Three ACM Decade Awards

(L-R:) RAC Clark, ACM Interim Executive Director; Scott Borchetta, Founder, President and CEO of Big Machine Label Group; Tyler Hubbard; Jimmy Harnen, CEO of BMLG Records; Brian Kelley; Seth England, Partner, Big Loud; Kevin “Chief” Zaruk, Partner, Big Loud; Scooter Braun, Chairman of Ithaca Holdings Photo Credit: The Holy Mountain

Florida Georgia Line are the first-ever recipients of the ACM Breakout Artist of the Decade Award, ACM Single of the Decade Award and ACM Music Event of the Decade Award, it was announced on Sunday (Sept. 29). The duo was awarded all three ACM Decade Awards in a surprise backstage presentation on Sept. 28 during their final stop on their Can’t Say I Ain’t Country Tour at FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine, California.

With these wins, Florida Georgia Line earns three of the seven all-new ACM Decade Award categories. The ACM Breakout Artist of the Decade Award acknowledges an artist that first impacted country music in the decade and has contributed to the country format in an impactful way. Factors considered include success at radio, commercial media, sales and streaming, creative integrity, touring statistics, artistic merit and ACM Award recognition.

The multi-platinum BMLG Records duo received the ACM Single of the Decade Award for their record-breaking No.1 hit “Cruise,” which recognizes a single that has impacted country over the decade. The factors considered include success at radio, commercial media, sales and streaming, artistic merit and ACM Award recognition.

Additionally, Florida Georgia Line received the ACM Music Event of the Decade Award for “Meant to Be” with Bebe Rexha. The award recognizes a recording performed by artists who do not regularly perform together that has impacted country music over the decade. The factors considered include success at radio, commercial media, sales and streaming, artistic merit and ACM Award recognition.

“Since FGL’s debut with ‘Cruise,’ their success has been amazing. They’ve blown us all away with recording-breaking tracks and performances. Once they collaborated with Bebe Rexha, they reached even more fans outside country music. We are excited to award BK and Tyler with these well-deserved awards to celebrate these unprecedented multiple career milestones from this past decade,” said RAC Clark, ACM Interim Executive Director.

The ACM Decade Awards were ratified by the ACM Board of Directors, following a stringent examination by more than 20 Board members and the ACM Special Awards Committee co-chaired by Chuck Aly and Kelly Rich – from the full spectrum of creative and commercial aspects of the genre – of the most influential projects over the past decade of country music. Like the ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade honor recognizing Jason Aldean in April, these awards will be presented only every ten years. The recipient of the remaining category ACM Album of the Decade Award will be announced in the coming weeks.

Other ACM Decade Award winners include ACM Artist-Songwriter of the Decade Award recipient Chris Stapleton, ACM Songwriter of the Decade Award recipient Rhett Akins and ACM Song of the Decade Award recipients Miranda Lambert, and songwriters Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin, for “The House That Built Me.”

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Lorie Hollabaugh

Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.

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