The second annual I’m Just Me: A Charley Pride Celebration of Inclusion brunch will take place May 6 at the Hall Park Hotel in Frisco, Texas, two days before the 2025 Academy of Country Music Awards.
Mickey Guyton, a two-time ACM Award nominee and the first Black woman to host the ACM Awards, in 2021, will emcee the event that celebrates honorees who represent Pride’s legacy in country music as leaders in hope, advocacy and innovation.
This year’s honorees are country singer/songwriter Brittney Spencer, iconic artist Lionel Richie, Guyton, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” singer Shaboozey, the Freddy Fender Estate, F2 Entertainment president/CEO Fletcher Foster, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and grandmother of Juneteenth Opal Lee, Amazon Music head of country music Michelle Tigard Kammerer, Tennessean country music reporter Marcus Dowling and mtheory CEO Cameo Carlson. (More honorees are to come.)
The groundbreaking Pride, who died in 2020 at age 86, was country music’s first Black superstar, breaking down barriers despite facing racial adversity and going on to win three Grammy Awards. He was the first Black artist to win entertainer of the year at the Country Music Awards, and he received the ACM’s Pioneer Award and the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He scored 29 No. 1s on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and was the first Black artist to reach No. 1 on the chart.
The invite-only I’m Just Me event will be presented by Amazon MGM Studios, in partnership with Amazon Music and the Academy of Country Music.
“We’re honored to support this celebration that uplifts trailblazers pushing the genre forward, while reaffirming our commitment to broadening the narrative and welcoming a wider range of voices into the spotlight,” Ryan Redington, GM of Amazon Music, said in a statement.
Reba McEntire will host the 60th ACM Awards, which will stream free live across more than 240 countries and territories on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday, May 8, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
