It took 13 years for another woman to pull it off, and Lainey Wilson made it look easy.
At the 2025 ACM Awards, Lainey Wilson took home Entertainer of the Year for the second year in a row, becoming the first female artist since Taylor Swift in 2011 and 2012 to win the Academy’s top honor back-to-back. That stat, noted initially by VegasInsider.com, puts Wilson in rare company.
Plenty of women deserve it. None have managed to break through until now.
When Blake Shelton called her name inside the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, Lainey didn’t fake composure. She looked stunned. And then she walked up and delivered a speech that hit like a country song, funny, vulnerable, and from the gut.
She thanked her fellow nominees, admitted to battling impostor syndrome, and told a story about her sister shining a hunting spotlight on her in their living room back in Baskin, Louisiana. Even as a kid, she dreamed about entertaining. Now, she’s got country music’s highest honor two years running.
“I love making people feel things,” she told the crowd. And that’s exactly what she did all night.
Because it wasn’t just Entertainer of the Year. In one night, Lainey won four major awards, adding Female Artist of the Year, Album of the Year for “Whirlwind”, and Artist-Songwriter of the Year to her collection. That brings her ACM career total to 16 trophies, all racked up since 2021. And she’s still in fifth gear.
Let’s put this in context.
When Taylor Swift won back-to-back Entertainer of the Year trophies in 2011 and 2012, she was already launching global tours and building the crossover empire that would carry her beyond country radio. Her wins marked the height of her Nashville era.
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Lainey’s wins feel different. She’s not leaving the genre. She’s doubling down on it. “Whirlwind” sounds like it was raised on steel guitars and mud. Her Country’s Cool Again Tour is packing arenas. She’s not inching into pop. She’s dragging country deeper into its own roots.
This isn’t to say one path is better than the other. Taylor opened the door. Lainey walked in with her boots on and started rearranging the furniture.
And for over a decade, that door stayed mostly shut for women at the very top, until now.
Lainey’s sweep at the 60th ACM Awards was more than a career checkpoint. It was a full-on statement that women in country don’t just deserve the big slots. They can take them, own them, and hold them. She didn’t just match history. She moved it forward.
And the part that really matters? Fans showed up for her long before trophies did. That’s why this win hits different. It’s not hype. It’s not timing. It’s connection.
From her throwback sound to her honky-tonk heart, Lainey Wilson is writing the kind of story country music was built on. One verse at a time. One packed crowd at a time. And now, two Entertainer of the Year wins to back it all up.
She’s not the next anybody.
She’s Lainey Wilson. And she’s just getting started.
