As the dust settles from last night’s Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards in Nashville, Canada can be proud of its representation on the show, from awards won to nominations and few other interesting connections.

First, and obviously, congratulations to Tenille Townes on her two ACM awards: New Female Artist and Music Event of the Year. The odds were pretty good a Canadian could win in those categories since both of Lindsay Ell’s nominations were in the same two categories! Lindsay was nominated in the Music Event category for her duet “What Happens in a Small Town” with Brantley Gilbert, and Tenille won that trophy for her contribution to the “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” Miranda Lambert project that also included Caylee Hammack, Elle King and Ashley McBryde. BTW, Shania Twain won the ACM New Female Artist award in 1996, the year after both she and Terri Clark were nominated for it.

(Tenille Townes)

Luke Combs’ win for Album of the Year is also a win for Canada. In addition to Luke receiving a trophy as the artist for “What You See Is What You Get,” an award also goes to the producer. In this case, Scott Moffatt, a Canadian living in Nashville for the past several years and part of the 1990’s pop teen band The Moffatts, gets a trophy, too. Luke acknowledged Scott in his acceptance by saying, “This album was hell to make, but we did it, buddy.”

Among the many standout performances on last night’s show, Mickey Guyton’s “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” drew a lot of attention. Watching that performance from her recently tornado-damaged home in Nashville was Canadian Victoria Banks, one of the writers of the song. Posting on social media last night, Victoria captured the feelings she had as she watched Mickey’s performance. “It’s every songwriter’s dream to write something raw and honest and to have it find its way into the world the way this song has. It was beyond imagining to see it become the first original song performed by a Black woman in 55 years of ACM.Awards history tonight. Here’s to pouring our guts out and saying the hard stuff, Mickey Guyton, Karen Kosowski, Emma-Lee Dee. Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Karen is another Canadian co-writer on the song, originally from Winnipeg, and Emma-Lee is originally from Toronto. That song has some very strong Canadian representation!

(Victoria Banks, 1 of 3 female Canadian writers of Mickey Guyton’s “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”)

And speaking of songwriters, Georgia-born Hillary Lindsey won the Songwriter of the Year award. An outstanding writer who has contributed to such hits as Miranda Lambert’s “It All Comes Out in the Wash,” Carrie Underwood’s “Cry Pretty” and Runaway June’s “Buy My Own Drinks,” Hillary has written some pretty big hits in collaboration with a couple of Canadians. Lindsey is a co-writer of Carrie’s classic hit “Jesus Take the Wheel” with Canadian Gordie Sampson and she was also a co-writer of Keith Urban’s “Blue Ain’t Your Color” with Steven Lee Olsen.

Congratulations to all the winners last night and special cudos to the Canadians who played a part in the 55th annual Academy of Country Music awards.