Country rock or straight rock and roll?
The 2026 ACM Awards are in full swing, and, naturally, as with any awards show, folks are taking to social media to share their opinions on performances, wins, and more.
While we still have a lot of the awards show left, meaning there is still plenty of time for fans to share their hot takes online, early in the evening, ACM New Female Artist of the Year Avery Anna is stirring up some of the conversation online after her performance.
In case you’re not familiar, the 21-year-old singer/songwriter got her start on TikTok, frequently going viral by posting both covers and original songs while sitting in her bathtub fully clothed back in 2020 and 2021, garnering millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes per post. Flash forward to today, and she’s been on a roll.
For many diehard country fans, they’ll be familiar with her appearances alongside Sam Barber on the pair’s breakout hit from last year, “Indigo,” which not only received a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) but also scored the duo their first-ever placement on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #40. While “Indigo” might have put her on the map, she’s been able to keep up her following as a solo artist and is nothing short of a force to be reckoned with — Her ACM Award win this year solidified that statement.
In Las Vegas, she took the stage rocking a black leather look, kicking off her performance with a cover of Cher’s 1966 hit “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” Anna then moved into her tune “Blood Runs Thicker,” from her latest EP, Forgive, Forget. The rock-forward sounding track has earned the artist an astonishing 2.7 million streams on Spotify alone since its March release.
While many country fans today know that the boundaries of the genre are constantly being pushed and many sounds fit into the country music category, the country fans tuning into the awards show had mixed feelings about her edgy performance. Some folks online felt she didn’t belong on the ACM Awards stage, or that the song choice wasn’t appropriate for a country music-specific awards show. You also have to imagine she’s relatively unknown to many casual country fans, so I could see the performance being quite jarring.
I personally thought that Avery Anna crushed the performance, showing fans that she can captivate a room, and the song choice really showed the multi-faceted sound she has when compared to her last big hit, “Indigo.” If you’re familiar with Anna’s work, too, then you know that this girl has some grit as she released a wicked cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears,” leading to a major viral moment for her.
And for those who don’t believe this is country, what do you call artists like Whiskey Myers, Koe Wetzel, or Treaty Oak Revival? They are all rock-leaning in their sound, yet have never been questioned for not being country artists. Even the Red Clay Strays are a rock band.
Of course, the section of the internet that didn’t like her performance was met with a large section that loved every second of it.
Like it or leave it, Avery Anna is definitely here to stay.
Watch and decide for yourself.
