- The 61st ACM Awards aired on May 17 from Las Vegas.
- All of country’s biggest names were in attendance, including nominee Riley Green.
- The singer shared the funny reason he chose to attend the event solo.
All eyes are on Riley Green, well, always, but especially at awards shows. Over the past year, fans have kept an eagle eye on the 37-year-old country star, remaining ever curious about who he’s dating amid the many rumors swirling around his love life. So, when he arrived on the 61st ACM Awards indigo carpet without a date, people immediately began speculating. This time, though, Riley publicly announced why he chose to arrive solo.
On Sunday, May 17, Riley stopped to chat with Extra TV’s Alecia Davis while walking the arrivals carpet into MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. When the host asked if he’d brought a date, he said no before explaining why. “Well, Shania Twain’s here, so I’m not bringing a date to this,” he said with a chuckle and a grin. “...the level of stardom that she got to… and, you know, it’s tough for a female artist; you got all these guy country singers out there, and for her to get to the place she was, there [are] not a lot of larger-than-life figures—Dolly, Reba, Shania. It’s awesome that she’s here and to be a part of this.”
Alecia responded by simply telling Riley that he’s “the man,” to which he earnestly quipped, “Tell Shania that.” As the pair continued their conversation, Riley also revealed that Shania, who was hosting the evening’s awards show, called his name, and he “about fell out.”
To see one of country music’s biggest stars swooning over a fellow icon? A moment many fans loved to witness. “Ah, Riley was blushing, how cute,” one fan commented on Extra’s clip of the interaction. “His sweet tribute to the queens of country. The new coach of The Voice season 30. I’m excited,” someone else chimed in.
On top of the excitement of a present crush, Riley entered the 2026 ACM Awards with four chances to take home a trophy. Of the four categories he was up for—Artist-Songwriter of the Year, Music Event of the Year, Album of the Year, and Male Artist of the Year—he pocketed the win for Music Event of the Year for his duet with Ella Langley, “Don’t Mind if I Do.”
Rebecca Norris is a full-time freelance writer living in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Over the past 10+ years, she’s heavily covered a range of lifestyle topics, including travel, home, beauty, style, wellness, and celebrity news. She is a graduate of George Mason University, where she earned a B.A. in Media: Production, Consumption, and Critique, along with a minor in Electronic Journalism. When she's not writing, she can be found strolling with her Jack-Chi, Cash, sipping iced matcha lattes, indulging in delicious cuisine, perusing farmer’s markets and antique sales, collecting colored glass, getting lost within the pages of a book, and exploring new bucket-list cities.
