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Country music legend Shania Twain is giving some pre-awards show insight into the long-awaited 2026 Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards.
“Well, I can check this bucket list [item] now because hosting the ACMs is a very, very big deal for me,” Twain, 60, tells Us Weekly and other McClatchy Media outlets ahead of the Sunday, May 17, show at the MGM Grand Garden arena in Las Vegas.
“And yeah, it just makes one feel quite accomplished as far as other bucket list things — boy, yeah, just spend more time with my horses,” Twain adds. “That’s what I really, really need to do. More time with horses. Bucket list thing right on the beach… The hosting gig is my favorite line right now.”
Sunday’s 61st annual awards show is sure to feature a slew of surprising upsets and historic moments, especially since women lay claim to the evening’s most nominations for the second year in a row.
Twain, not to be outdone, is hosting the ACMs for the first time this year, taking over for fellow music legend Reba McEntire.
Shania Twain attends the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards Getty Images
“I am representing our genre,” Twain told USA Today of her role for the evening, which also marks the 30th anniversary of the singer’s first ACM wins in 1996. “I am there to represent the talent, to make them feel comfortable. So I think I’m just going to have a really fun time.”
Twain tells Us and other McClatchy Media outlets that when it comes to herself and her fellow country music stars, no matter the accolades or the bright lights of an awards show they’re “all gigging as entertainers.”
“This is the biggest gig of my life,” Twain says of the award show and her role as the evening’s host. “You can expect a lot of excitement, glamor. We’re going to be very glamorous here in Las Vegas. You can expect that this is the ACMs Vegas style. There’s going to be a lot of beauty because there’s more women on the nominees list this year.”
She adds, “So that always brings up the fashion a little higher sometimes, I think. So you can see a lot of really fabulous, high fashion.”
Twain’s hosting duties come in the wake of what she had previously told Us was her era of “mental liberation” following decades of hard work, profound loss and body image issues.
“I was always like, ‘I need to be myself.’ If anything, I was in a rush to get more and more authentic,” Twain exclusively told Us for her March 2025 cover story. “Any artist’s greatest power is originality. I was insecure about lots of things, but I had conviction. I could see what was really good. I could see it in others and in myself. I had a lot of clarity with that.”
She continued of the pressure to be perfect when performing live, “I want to be excellent at what I do, but you cannot be perfect live. No one can because it is a living, breathing thing. I had to let go of [that]. I realized that everybody’s there for the live performance. They know they’re not listening to the record. They’re not there for me to show them how perfect I am.”
The 2026 Academy of Country Music Awards will air live from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand on Sunday, May 17, and will concurrently stream on Prime Video beginning at 8 p.m. ET. The show will also be streamed via Amazon Music’s Twitch channel and independent app.
