3 Incredible ACM Winners From 1971 We Still Can’t Get Enough

The first-ever Academy of Country Music Awards ceremony was held in 1966. The pageant, which started to hand out hat-shaped trophies two years later, televised the show for the first time in 1972 on ABC. Ever since those days, the ACMs have played a major role in honoring country artists.

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Here below, we wanted to take a look at one of those early ACM years. Specifically, we wanted to highlight 1971, which was the first year the show began to hand out the coveted award for Entertainer of the Year. Indeed, these are three ACM Winners from 1971 we still can’t get enough of now.

Merle Haggard

The 1971 Academy of Country Music Awards saw perhaps the most crowded field possible in the category for Entertainer of the Year. While the pageant had been around for a handful of years by 1971, that was the first year that the show began to hand out the coveted trophy in that star-studded category. Indeed, in 1971 the field included names like Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Charley Pride. But it was Haggard who took home the award. He also won the trophy that year for Top Male Vocalist of the Year.

Lynn Anderson

While Haggard won Top Male Vocalist of the Year, it was country star Lynn Anderson who took home the award for Top Female Vocalist of the Year at the 1971 ACM Awards. Like Haggard, Anderson beat out an incredibly star-studded field that included Bobbie Gentry, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and Loretta Lynn. That’s not an awards show nominee list, that’s a country music Mount Rushmore! Incredibly, Anderson released five albums in 1970, which no doubt helped her take home the honor.

Kris Kristofferson

Every country fan knows the name Kris Kristofferson. And the star songwriter and performer only added to his burgeoning legend in 1971 when he took home the ACM Award for Song of the Year for his single, “For The Good Times”. The triumphant song of love and conquest came out on the country star’s self-titled debut LP in 1970. The rest, as they say, is history!

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