About Academy of Country Music Awards

The Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM Awards) is the longest-running country music awards show, first held in 1966 by the Academy of Country Music, which was founded in Los Angeles in 1964 as the Country and Western Music Academy. Originally established to promote country music across the western United States, the organization grew into a national institution now headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The awards were first televised nationally on ABC in 1972 and have since aired on NBC, CBS, and since 2022, exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. Honoring achievements across categories including Entertainer of the Year and Album of the Year, the ACM Awards are known for their iconic "hat" trophy, introduced in 1968, and feature some of the biggest performances in country music each year.