Gabby Barrett and Jimmie Allen Are This Year’s ACM Best New Artists

The ACMs are a little over a week away, but we found out yesterday that the Best New Artist winners are Gabby Barrett and Jimmie Allen. Neither of them knew it was coming.

Gabby was sitting at a table somewhere when she was told to open a large card. Inside was a video of the show’s host Keith Urban giving her some “mighty fine news.” As you’d expect, she cheered, screamed, and thanked everyone.

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Jimmie was in a recording studio when he got his video card. He jumped out of his chair, and had a hard time believing it was true. So he watched the video a second time and then joked about giving his acceptance speech right there and then.

The win also means that each of them will get to perform on the show.