Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd are used to attending awards shows together, but performing together is new

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ABC

Maren Morris and her husband and fellow artist, Ryan Hurd, are doing something new at this weekend’s ACM Awards: For the first time, they’re performing at an awards show together, bringing their new duet, “Chasing After You,” to the stage.

“When we got the word that we were gonna perform this on the show, it was so exciting, because this is Ryan’s first awards show to perform on,” Maren says. “He’s typically, like, my date at them.”

That also means that Ryan will get a first-hand look at what it’s like to be an entertainer on the show.

“You’ll see how scary it actually is,” Maren adds with a laugh.

Though the show doesn’t kick off until Sunday, Ryan’s already had a lot to be excited about this week. “Worldwide Beautiful,” a song he co-wrote for Kane Brown, won Kane an early Video of the Year trophy.

“It truly was a special day writing that song, and we all knew it,” he remembers. “Then Kane obviously knocked that video out of the park. So we’re just proud to have my name even in any way attached to that.”

Meanwhile, Maren’s looking forward to defending her title as reigning Female Artist of the Year, which she won for the first time in 2020.

“It definitely raised the stakes, I guess,” she says of that experience. “I just remember being at the ACMs last year, and having no clue that I was going to win. And it really just started this ball rolling. Like, the CMAs were crazy, and then being nominated at the Grammys…It’s an honor, always.”

The 2021 ACM Awards will air Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. 

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