Country music singer and songwriter Megan Moroney has revealed the wholesome and heartfelt reason she was absent from the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards.

Moroney, 28, didn’t attend the event, which took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday, May 17.

While Moroney was nominated for eight awards — the highest number of nominations for anyone this year — including “Entertainer of the Year” and “Female Artist of the Year,” she unfortunately failed to win any of them.

This year’s ACM Awards were hosted by country music icon Shania Twain, 60. Ella Langley, 27, came away as the evening’s biggest success, with five wins.

Moroney took to Instagram to explain her absence from the ceremony.

Megan Moroney Was Acting as Maid of Honor for a Friend

GettyMegan Moroney on stage.
The fantastic Megan Moroney took to her Instagram account to reveal, via a story, her reason for missing the 2026 ACM Awards to her 2.5 million followers.

The post featured a picture of Moroney and her friend, wearing matching pink and blue tracksuits, with “Bridesmaid” and “Bride” written on the rears.

Moroney captioned the post, “I’m so honored to be nominated tonight at @ACMAwards & I’m rooting on all my friends from afar!”

The caption continued, “I’m out of the country this week on MOH [maid of honor] duty to get my bestie married @Inatalieking.”

It concluded, “i 🩷 you guys & can’t wait to see y’all in columbus! counting down the days :).”

Hopefully, Moroney and (perhaps more importantly) her friend had an amazing time at the wedding.

Moroney’s Tour Begins on May 29

When Megan Moroney wrote “can’t wait to see y’all in Columbus,” she was referring to the first venue of her upcoming tour in Columbus, Ohio.

The tour, titled “The Cloud 9 Tour,” starts on May 29 and ends on October 1 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It will see Moroney travel all over the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Moroney posted an image of all the tour dates on her Instagram account last December, resulting in an excited influx of comments from her fans.

One fan wrote, “I’m on CLOUD 9 over this announcement!!! (get it) ☁️💖☁️💖”

Similarly, another fan said, “Honestly, I’ve been living on cloud 9️⃣🩷🩷🩷.Since you announced it. You truly iconic and I can’t wait to hear you play at those Big venues.”

Another of Moroney’s followers commented, “AHHHH!!!! This is incredible!!!! 💖”

Someone else said, “12 hours later and I’m still processing I’m literally so proud of u 😭🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷.”

Bandana brand Cowboy Tears wrote, “💕 Okay hear me out…custom tour bandanas. Cowboy Tears x Megan Moroney? Because that feels meant to be. 🤠”

Finally, one follower made a wholesome suggestion, saying, “ATTENTION!!! anyone whos going to the cloud 9 tour, we should make friendship bracelets so we can trade them or hand them out at the concerts!!”

We’d like to wish Megan Moroney all the very best with her tour. We hope it ends up being a resounding critical success (and we have absolutely no doubts that it will be).