Morgane Stapleton will no longer be performing with husband Chris Stapleton at the ACM Awards.
Minutes before the show airs, the Academy of Country Music announced that Morgane, 38, will miss her performance of ‘Maggie’s Song’ alongside Stapleton, 43 due to a ‘previous doula commitment,’ and will be replaced onstage by Miranda Lambert.
“Due to her previous doula commitment, Morgane Stapleton is unable to join Chris Stapleton at the Bluebird as planned,” ACM said to PEOPLE. “Miranda Lambert will take the Bluebird stage with Chris tonight for ‘Maggie’s Song’.”
ROBYN BECK / AFP via Getty; Kevin Mazur / Getty Morgane and Chris Stapleton; Miranda Lambert
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Lambert is already ready to open the show with Elle King for their recently released duet “Drunk (And I Don’t Want to Go Home)”, and to perform a second time with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall.
Stapleton’s track “Maggie’s Song” – written as a tribute to Chris and Morgane’s deceased lab terrier – appears on his most recently released album Start overIt tells the life story of the dog who saved the couple, with Morgane singing background vocals on the track.
“I told her she was a good dog / And I said goodbye / Run, Maggie, run,” he sings to it. “With a rebel kid’s heart / Run Maggie, run / Be as free as you are wild.”
“It’s all true,” Stapleton told the US Los Angeles Times about the track. ‘There is no embellishment in it,’ before I said, ‘It was difficult to sing. It kept me crying a lot. ‘
Stapleton is the male performer to win the most awards on Sunday night, including for Entertainer, Male Artist and Album of the Year. His song “Starting Over” is also suitable for song of the year.
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Along with the announcement that Morgane would miss her performance with her husband, the ACMs revealed that Brothers Osborne will close the show with a performance of “Dead Man’s Curve.” The duo were already scheduled to take the stage for “I’m Not For Everyone.”
The two have been nominated for duo of the year while on their album Skeletons is ready for album of the year.
The 2021 ACM Awards will be broadcast live Sunday from Nashville from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount +.