Reba McEntire Drops Zinger After Zinger During ACM Awards Opening
Here she is, your 53rd Annual #ACMawards host, the legendary @reba! Who’s ready to get this party started?! pic.twitter.com/wK80Z56uw1
— ACM Awards (@ACMawards) April 16, 2018
Reba McEntire was in fine form in her opening monologue at the 2018 ACM Awards, throwing good-humored barbs at Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood and more — but most of all, herself.
"I first hosted this show in 1986," she told the crowd in Las Vegas. "To put that in perspective, not only was Kelsea Ballerini not born, her parents weren't even dating yet."
She threw a few light-hearted jabs at the male and female imbalance in country music, too, mentioning that in recent years, the ACMs have been hosted by first Blake Shelton and Luke Byan, then Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley. "I guess they finally figured out that it only takes one woman to do the work of two men," she quipped.
Mentioning that the ACM Awards were looking back on 25 years ago in 1993, McEntire asked, "Do you know what the biggest thing in 1993? My hair! Jacked up to Jesus," she joked.
Observing that she and Kelly Clarkson would be tributing 1993 by singing "Does He Love You," she cracked, "I wanted Kelly to sing it with me originally, but she was in the fourth grade."
Returning to the hard time women are having in country music, McEntire pointed out that the Entertainer of the Year category consists of five men and no women in 2018, "like singles night at the Holiday Inn!"
McEntire's opening monologue provided a much-needed dash of levity to the 2018 ACM Awards, which mark the first time many country singers have returned to Las Vegas since the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in October of 2017.
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