Lainey Wilson and Jessie Jo Dillon were named the winners of 2025 ACM Awards in the two songwriting categories on Thursday (May 8), ahead of tonight’s telecast.
Reba McEntire and Miranda Lambert presented Wilson with the artist-songwriter of the year award in a backstage surprise. Kelsea Ballerini presented Dillon with the songwriter of the year award during ACM Country Kickoff. It’s the second year in a row that Dillon has won in that category. She’s the first songwriter to win two years running since Hillary Lindsey in 2020-21.
This marks the 13th ACM Awards win for Wilson, who co-wrote every track on her latest album, Whirlwind. The 14-track project is nominated for album of the year and also features her hit “4x4xU,” which is up for song of the year.
Wilson is set to team with Lambert and McEntire to perform “Trailblazer” during tonight’s telecast. Wilson co-wrote the song with Lambert and Brandy Clark.
Dillon frequently collaborates with Ballerini, who is nominated for entertainer of the year for the first time and female artist of the year for the eighth time. Dillon, the daughter of songwriting great Dean Dillon, has writing credits on either the standard or deluxe editions of three of this year’s five album of the year nominees — Megan Moroney’s Am I Okay? (I’ll Be Fine), Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion. Dillon, 37, has also been nominated for the Grammy for songwriter of the year, non-classical the last two years in a row.
The ACM presented just one songwriter award from 2012 through 2022, when they split it in two. Dallas Davidson, Shane McAnally and Hillary Lindsey are the only previous two-time winners of songwriter of the year. HARDY and Chris Stapleton are the two previous winners of artist/songwriter of the year.
The 60th Academy of Country Music Awards airs live at 7 p.m. CT / 8 p.m. ET from Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Tex. Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner, with Patrick Menton as co-executive producer. Damon Whiteside serves as executive producer for the Academy of Country Music, and Jay Penske and Barry Adelman serve as executive producers for Dick Clark Productions. John Saade will also continue to serve as consulting producer for Amazon MGM Studios.
The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.