Brothers Osborne also took the stage to honor Urban, who recently completed the ACM Trifecta, winning the ACM Trifecta for New Artist of the Year, Artist of the Year and Artist of the Year
Three Keith Urban Classics received a tribute at the 2025 ACM Awards to celebrate the country singer guitarist who won the ACM Level 3 Championship Award. This honor recognizes artists who have completed the Best New Artist of the Year, Artist of the Year and Artist of the Year. The award was last presented to Carrie Underwood in 2010.
To mark this year’s occasion, Megan Moroney, Chris Stapleton and Brothers Osborne cover three city classics. Moroney made his debut with a quiet performance of "Silly Boy", a single from Urban 2006 album Love, pain and the whole crazy thing.
Chris Stapleton then explains the Blues’ “Blue Ain not Your Color” from Urban’s 2016 album Ripcord (These cameras even attracted Urban singing audiences to sing with their wife Nicole Kidman). To end the tribute, the Osborn Brothers repertoire is the breakthrough "Blackhead End" rendition of Urban's 1999 self-titled album. At this point, Urban couldn't help but pick up a guitar from under his chair and jumped onto the stage to tear a solo.
Urban has won 50 ACM awards and won 14 victories in his career. The artists who led the venerable established their own legacy at the award ceremony. Stapleton won 15 of 35 nominations, while the Osborne brothers won 6 of seven nominations. As the youngest, rising star, Moroney received nine nominations. Her first win was 2024’s Female Artist of the Year. She nominated for the female artist of the year this year and album of the year How am I? (I'll be fine).
“I just was able to express my inner feelings more broadly,” Urban told Rolling stones In 2021, about expanding the country’s label. “Even my ability to express myself is a bit limited for many years, just for…all reasons.”
At the time, John Mayer praised Urban, saying, “It’s hard to get people who don’t care about guitar solos to care about guitar solos, but Keith is one of the few who knows how to make guitar speak in songs. His wording is really special. It looks effortless and effortless, he doesn’t notice that he’s doing something really beautiful and fluid, thinking about your efforts harder than you do.