Ella Langley was the most nominated artist heading into the 2025 ACM Awards, and she also walked away with the most wins. Langley won a total of five trophies, including ACM New Female Artist of the Year, as well as ACM Single of the Year, ACM Music Event of the Year, and ACM Visual Media of the Year (as artist and producer), the latter three for her “You Look Like You Love Me” duet with Riley Green.
Not since Chris Stapleton in 2015 has a first-time nominee walked away with five ACM Awards. It’s a staggering accomplishment for Langley.
“I’m at a loss for words, which, if you’ve ever met me before, you know that’s very hard to do,” Langley said backstage after her win. “Just grateful. Grateful is just the word I keep saying. It’s all I can say, really.”
Langley also performed her current single, “Weren’t For The Wind,” during the live ceremony, one of the stand-out performances of the evening, as well as singing “Kerosene” with Miranda Lambert.
“Me and my band have worked really hard at creating a show, and a live show that feels like a show, not just a list of songs put together,” Langley explained. “We’ve worked really hard on our stage presence, so it felt like we got to show the world what we’ve been working so hard on.”
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For Langley, winning for “You Look Like You Love Me” with Green is especially meaningful, and proves her instincts about her career are correct.
“I think at first we were both a little leery about the song, to be completely honest,” Langley admitted to Billboard. “There hasn’t been a song with talking verses. A lot of people on my label thought that this song wouldn’t do well. But we just did it anyway. And I think what made a difference for us is seeing the fans sing it back … The first time we played it live was the last night of tour last year.”
“We just kind of did it,” Green added. “We didn’t really ask a lot of questions. We tried it and it worked. There was a week there where you couldn’t open your phone and not hear it … A night like tonight is awesome recognition for a song like that. Fortunately, we got another song that’s doing well together. It’s awesome to be on the road together.”
When Langley won New Female Artist of the Year, ahead of the live ceremony, the Alabama native expressed what it meant to her be recognized by the music industry.
“Every day of my life, I’ve prayed about this and thought about it,” Langley said through tears. “Literally, everything I’ve ever done was to do this. I’m so grateful for the team I have around me. I’m just really grateful to have fans that are listening to the music, and see that it is truth, and that I’m just a real life human being going through life like the rest of everyone else. To see that the things that I go through is something that everyone else goes through. But this is … thank you.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the ACM / Gilbert Flores