From Merle Haggard to Miranda Lambert, All the Artists Who Have Clinched the Academy of Country Music’s Triple Crown
Two acts – Keith Urban and The Chicks – have been nominated for the award, but they have yet to receive it.
Miranda Lambert
Robert Ascroft for foureleven.agency
When Miranda Lambert finally won entertainer of the year for the first time at the 2022 ACM Awards on March 7, she clinched what the Academy of Country Music likes to call its “triple crown” — a win in the appropriate new artist category; in the appropriate male, female, duo or group category; and for entertainer of the year.
Lambert wasn’t present at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to accept her entertainer of the year award in person, but she will be on hand to receive the Triple Crown Award at the 15th annual ACM Honors at the fabled Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Aug. 24.
Merle Haggard was the first artist to meet the three-pronged criteria to receive the Triple Crown award back in 1971 — though the ACM didn’t come up with the bright idea to present Triple Crown winners with a new award until 2005, when they notified the six artists who had qualified for the award by that point — Hag, Mickey Gilley, Barbara Mandrell, Brooks & Dunn, The Chicks and Kenny Chesney.
The awards have been presented in many ways over the years. Reba McEntire presented Mandrell with her Triple Crown award in 2005 at the 40th ACM Awards. Darius Rucker presented Gilley with his award in 2015 at an ACM event leading up to the 50th ACM Awards.
Carrie Underwood received her award on the ACM Awards telecast in 2010. Like Lambert, Jason Aldean received his at the ACM Honors (in 2016). These presentations will be made at the ACM Honors in the future, according to the ACM.
Two acts, The Chicks and Keith Urban, have qualified for the award but have yet to formally receive it. The ACM is still waiting for the right occasion to present the award.
The artists who have qualified to the Triple Crown are almost equally divided between male artists (five) or groups/duos (44)
The Chicks are the only group that meets this criteria. Brooks & Dunn is the only duo that can do so.
Here are the 10 artists who have qualified for the Triple Crown Award. They are listed chronologically according to the date they won the third award and were thus eligible for the Triple Crown Award.
Note : The years displayed are the years of ACM telecasts in which the various awards were given. ACM records show the previous years, which they consider the year of record. So Lambert won the 2021 entertainer of the year award in 2022. We’ll call that 2022.
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