At the 60th Annual ACM Awards held in Frisco, Texas, Chris Stapleton and his wife of nearly two decades, Morgane Stapleton, delivered a performance that many are calling the emotional highlight of the night. Their rendition of “It Takes A Woman”, a track from Chris’s 2023 album Higher, was as stripped-down as it was soul-stirring.
The couple walked onto the stage not as performers — but as partners, stepping into what felt like a sacred space. They needed no introduction. The audience fell quiet as Chris looked at Morgane and began to sing the ballad he wrote for her — and, in his words, “for every woman who holds a family together with invisible strength.”
Morgane’s harmonies, barely above a whisper at times, hovered like a second heartbeat beside him. It wasn’t showmanship. It was real. It was theirs. And it was deeply felt.
In the front row, Reba McEntire — this year’s host and herself a living symbol of country music — was seen wiping away tears as she watched the performance unfold. Camera shots caught her holding a hand to her heart, visibly moved by the authenticity between the Stapletons.
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“Sometimes you don’t need fireworks,” she said afterward backstage. “You just need a man who means what he sings… and a woman who’s stood beside him through it all.”
The performance drew a standing ovation, but not the thunderous kind — it was reverent, quiet, almost prayerful. Fellow artists, including Lainey Wilson and Kelsea Ballerini, were seen mouthing the lyrics, some with glassy eyes.
Fans took to social media immediately afterward:
“Chris and Morgane just reminded us what love really sounds like,” one tweet read.
Another said simply: “They didn’t perform. They confessed.”
In a night filled with dazzling duets and award-winning anthems, the Stapletons stood still — and in doing so, moved everyone.
