Eric Church and the reigning ACM and CMA Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan are up for this year’s top award at the ACM Awards on Sunday (April 3rd). They’re competing alongside Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks and Miranda Lambert.
Luke, who’s picked up this award twice, says “being called the Entertainer of the Year makes me want to do that to the best of my ability every night for the rest of my life as long as I’m on stage.”
Eric, on the other hand, is nominated for his first-ever Entertainer of the Year award, and he finds it a little unexpected. “I’ve been doing this a long time, so it’s strange to have that nomination,” says the “Record Year” singer. “There were many days I didn’t think we’d get there.”
The 51st Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Luke and Dierks Bentley, will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas April 3rd at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.
Audio / Luke Bryan talks about being named Entertainer of the Year from both the ACM Awards and CMA Awards.
DownloadLuke Bryan (Entertainer wins) OC: …got it right. :49
“The title is what it is, you know? I mean, my focus in life when I’m on stage is entertaining these fans. If it’s my smile and my demeanor, if it’s my song that does it, if it’s me picking up a child out of the audience and letting them sing, it’s not being so premeditated that you can see it from a mile away. I mean, my main thing is be a fan up there that just gets to sing. That’s kind of how I’ve always approached it, and being called the Entertainer of the Year makes me want to do that to the best of my ability every night for the rest of my life as long as I’m on stage. I want people to leave my shows and go, ‘You know what? Whoever’s voting him Entertainer of the Year, they got it right.’”
Audio / Eric Church says it’s a little strange to finally be nominated for Entertainer of the Year at the ACMs.
DownloadEric Church (ACMs 2016) 1 OC: …cool for me. :36
“First time for that one. You know, it’s strange for me. I’ve been doing this a long time, so it’s strange to have that nomination. There were many days I didn’t think we’d get there. [laughs] But I think for me, I mean, I’m the most proud of the fact that we do our own thing and we do it how we want to do it, and especially with Mr. Misunderstood the album and dropping it on the CMAs and not telling anybody about it and just letting music be music is something that’s been very rewarding and very cool for me.”
