When Keith Urban signed on to host the ACM Awards, he never imagined that the awards would take place not in April but in September, and not in Las Vegas but in Nashville, all due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Still, the New Zealand native is praising the Academy of Country Music for forging ahead, even if the ceremony will look much, much different than in previous years.

“What my hosting duties are gonna be, I’m still working on right now,” Keith told Taste of Country. “We’re still piecing this all together. I love the fact that we’re going to do it in Nashville; I love that it’s going ahead. Here we are in September — ACMs in September is a first. I love that we’re going to be doing it in a few amazing places.”

“I’m going to be hosting from Grand Ole Opry House and crossing over to some performances in the Bluebird Cafe and also Ryman Auditorium. So what’s great about this is, even though a lot of people won’t to be able to come — and obviously we can’t have people in the audience — there’s going to be a lot of people around the world that get to see these places that have never seen them before.”

Luke Bryan, Dan + Shay, Kane Brown and more were just added to the list of performers for the ACM Awards, which already included Luke Combs, Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert and others. Tenille Townes and Riley Green have already been named as winners, for New Female Artist of the Year and New Male Artist of the Year, respectively.

Keith is nominated for one ACM Award, for Male Vocalist of the Year. He also recently found out he received three CMA Awards nods, for Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, and Musical Event of the Year, for his contribution to Thomas Rhett’s “Be a Light.”

The 2020 ACM Awards will air live on September 16 at 8:00 PM ET on CBS, while the 2020 CMA Awards will air live on November 11 at 8:00 PM ET on ABC. A host for the CMA Awards has yet to be announced.