Keith Urban Turns Ford Center Into a Honky-Tonk With ‘Texas Time’ at the 2023 ACMs
Keith Urban opened the 2023 ACM Awards with a Texas-sized welcome, performing his feel-good tune "Texas Time," which is an album track from his 2018 album, Graffiti U.
As the first performer on the show, Urban certainly brought the right energy to kick off the night, and he turned the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas into a honky-tonk in the process.
When the lights came up, Urban stood in the middle of the stage with his signature electric guitar as blue lights swirled around him. Before too long, line dancing began to break out in the crowd, and the screen soon lit up with neon figures line dancing on the screen behind Urban.
Of course, Urban brought his whiplash-inducing guitar skills to the show, and he took off on a smooth guitar solo halfway through the tune. Toward the end of the performance, Urban moved to the side of the stage, where a platform raised him high into the air while he finished the tune using an effect that caused his voice to sound like an electric guitar.
Urban may not be on the nominees list at the ACMs this year, but he's got plenty of history with the show. He most recently hosted the ACMs in 2021, with help from co-host Mickey Guyton. Urban won Entertainer of the Year in 2018, and prior to that, he'd been nominated for the night's top honor eight times.
Urban is also a presenter at the 2023 awards show.
The 2023 ACM Awards are taking place at Frisco, Texas' Ford Center and streaming live on Amazon Prime Video. Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks are co-hosting the show, marking the first time the two living legends have ever worked together, and the first time Brooks has ever co-hosted a major awards show of any kind.