The queen finally got her crown.
At the 15th Annual ACM Honors special, which was filmed a couple weeks ago and just aired last night, Miranda Lambert was presented with the ACM Triple Crown trophy.
She qualified as of earlier this year, after securing a big win with Entertainer Of The Year, and having previously won the ACM Awards for New Artist Of The Year and Female Artist Of The Year.
Miranda is currently the most celebrated artist in Academy Of Country Music, with over 37 awards to her name in total.
She gave a lengthy speech during the ACM Honors event to accept her Triple Crown trophy, which you can read below.
Of course, she was humbled to accept such an impressive award, recalling some of her early days in Nashville and all the dreams she had to just win one ACM Award:
“It’s amazing, I mean, we’re at the Ryman, number one, which is the heart of Nashville and heart of country music – our mother church – and I went to my first ACMs in 2005 and I won New Female in 2006, and it’s 2022 and I won Entertainer this year, so it’s just been such a long road and such an amazing one.
This journey – I see these fans out here and I only wanted, from the beginning of time, when I started playing music at seventeen, I always just said my goal is to have a long career. I want to be able to sing and write songs for as long as I physically can, and this was just affirmation that I’m on the right path, because 2006 to 2022 is a long time!
But I am so thankful for every piece of that journey. I had an amazing night, Brooks & Dunn just sang ‘Kerosene’ I’m freaking out. I came to my first ACM Awards in 2005, I won my first New Female in 2006, and it’s 2022? That seems crazy to me. But I came to Nashville when I was 15 to watch Fan Fair when it was at the fair grounds.
I came to learn and observe and I’m still doing that. I hope that I’m part of the next generation’s observing and learning, and my band and crew and I have worked so hard. We’ve been on the road for 20 over years playing music, and so we can’t do any of this we’re doing up here without fans. And so we appreciate all the years of loyalty.
So thank y’all for loving country music and celebrating everybody on all sides of the industry tonight. We appreciate y’all so much. And I love you, Brendan. Thanks for staying out late tonight! Love y’all.”
Here’s a snippet of her speech:
10 artists in total have qualified for the Triple Crown Award, but only eight have been formally presented with it, including Brooks & Dunn, Barbara Mandrell, Kenny Chesney, Mickey Gilley, Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean and Merle Haggard, who was the first to qualify back in 1971.
The ACM association didn’t begin formally recognizing the aforementioned artists for this accomplishment until 2005, and Keith Urban and The Chicks have also qualified but have yet to receive the honor.
Brooks & Dunn also gave a rousing performance of Miranda’s first hit “Kerosene” at the show, which is now certified Platinum by the RIAA.
Here’s a little bit of that, too:
