It’s been seven years since Taylor Swift performed at the 2020 ACM Awards, and what a return it was. The Pennsylvania native sang “Betty,” the country-sounding tune from her latest Folklore album, live from the Grand Ole Opry stage, looking just as at home as if she was headlining a massive arena.
Taylor, who accompanied herself on the acoustic track, has three characters in “Betty,” the titular role, along with James and Inez, which happen to be the names of the children of her good friends, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
“[James] has lost the love of his life basically and doesn’t understand how to get it back. I think we all have these situations in our lives where we learn to really, really give a heartfelt apology for the first time,” Taylor told People. “Everybody makes mistakes, everybody really messes up sometimes and this is a song that I wrote from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy. I’ve always loved that in music you can kinda slip into different identities and you can sing from other people’s perspectives. So that’s what I did on this one.”
Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood were both declared the Entertainer of the Year. Maren Morris won Female Artist of the Year, while Luke Combs took home the trophy for Male Artist of the Year. See the complete list of winners here.