Cody Johnson is a proud Texan, so it only makes sense that he performed at the ACM Awards, which were held in Frisco, Texas.
The 2024 ACM Awards kicked off on Thursday, May 16th at 8 PM Eastern and were hosted by the legendary Reba McEntire.
This year marks her 17th time hosting the show, which is just two behind the record of anyone hosting a single award show. Bob Hope holds that record thanks to the 19 times he hosted the Academy Awards!
The show was jam-packed with incredible performances from Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert, Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson, Post Malone, and Chris Stapleton. There were also a couple cross-genre collaborations between Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan, as well as Nate Smith and Avril Lavigne.
In a post teasing his performance, the Academy of Country Music revealed that Johnson is actually the “most-nominated Texas-born artist” this year!
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Johnson has five nominations, which include Entertainer of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Visual Media of the Year.
While winning awards is incredible, that isn’t the reason why Cody Johnson pursued a career in country music. He did it because of his love of the genre and its ability to tell a story in a song, which is one of his strong suits.
He brought that strength to the stage on Thursday (May 16) when he performed his latest single, “Dirt Cheap.”
Johnson released “Dirt Cheap” as a single on March 11, 2024 as the second single off his 2023 album Leather.
It is already climbing the charts and is currently sitting at number 16 and 17 on the Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts, respectively.
Before he released “Dirt Cheap” as a single, he performed it in February at the Grand Ole Opry.
Fans called it “real country music” and encouraged everyone to take note.
The songwriters actually pitched it to Luke Combs first, who passed on. We really can’t imagine anyone but Cody singing this!
At the ACM Awards, Johnson slowed down the show and gave a heartfelt performance of his single, which had everyone misty-eyed. At the end of the performance, Johnson tipped his hat to the crowd, who were all giving him a standing ovation.