Mickey Guyton, Keith Urban to host ACM Awards

NASHVILLE, TENN. » Country stars Mickey Guyton and Keith Urban are taking over as hosts for the Academy of Country Music Awards in April.

With the announcement on Thursday by the ACM, dick clark productions and CBS, Guyton will make history as the first Black woman to host the country awards show. The show will air on CBS on April 18 from three Nashville music venues.

Guyton is also performing at Grammy Awards tonight, where she will sing her nominated single, “Black Like Me,” which is nominated for best country solo performance. She is also the first Black female solo artist to earn a Grammy nomination in a country category. Urban, a 15-time ACM Award winner, hosted the show solo last year when it was relocated from Las Vegas to Nashville.

RALEIGH, N.C. » When Ann Camden learned last month that her 17-year-old daughter got exposed to the coronavirus at school and was being sent home, she packed her belongings, jumped in the car and made the two-hour drive to the coast to stay with her recently vaccinated parents.

The 50-year-old mother had developed stage 4 breast cancer and could not afford to become infected. She also was not yet eligible under North Carolina’s rules to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. So she left her twin daughters with her husband and fled for safety.

Across the United States, millions of medically vulnerable people who initially were cited as a top vaccination priority group got slowly bumped down the list as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified its guidelines to favor the elderly, regardless of their physical condition, and workers in a wide range of job sectors.