On Monday’s episode of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Kellie Pickler will share the best year of her life with viewers.  This week, the contestants were asked to choose a memorable time from their lives and a song from the same era to create their dances, and Kellie’s chosen a very special one.

Kellie picked 2011, the year she married songwriter Kyle Jacobs. While Kellie and partner Derek Hough dance the rumba, Kyle will be on hand to perform a romantic ballad called “Say I Do” that he wrote especially for her shortly before their wedding.

“It’s going to be a 100 percent emotional moment, and I’m just hoping I can keep it together,” Kyle says. “The fact that she’s dancing to this song, our song, means so very much to both of us… it honors the love that we have so much.”

Kellie previewed her dancing plans on Friday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.  When Ellen asked whether there might be some jealousy between Kyle and Derek, the two men in her life, Kellie quipped, “My husband knows he’s always going to get the last dance.”

Dancing with the Stars airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Luke Bryan was overcome with emotion when his named was called as this year’s ACM Entertainer of the Year Sunday night, and it turns out he was thinking of some very dear family members who couldn’t be there to cheer him on.

Luke told reporters backstage, “My family has dealt with a lot of tragedy in our life with me losing my older brother and my older sister, and that’s the first thing you go. You know they’re in heaven smiling down on moments like this.”

As for his hosting job, Luke thinks he and co-host Blake Shelton pretty much hit it out of the park.

“I felt like Blake and I just had a blast,” Luke said, adding, ” I was so focused on hosting that I forgot the first line of my new single, ‘Crash My Party.’ I don’t even know what I sang, but I just went ‘blah blah blah,’ and then I got back on track ’cause hosting was such an important thing for me.”

Luke didn’t think he had a shot at winning Entertainer of the Year since Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean were both nominated against him. He said, “I thought it was Taylor’s award. Gosh knows, I cannot even believe it’s happened.”

Miranda Lambert wore a very revealing, low cut dress to the ACM Awards which showed off her assets quite nicely. Miranda’s friend Becky, who is married to Little Big Town‘s Phillip Sweet, even came up to her at the show and told her, “Blake won Duo of the Year.”

Miranda denied her husband Blake Shelton’s claims he saw her naked that morning, saying backstage “How can you see someone naked on ACM day? There’s no time for that.”

Miranda admitted she didn’t think she would win her fourth consecutive Female Vocalist trophy. She said, “I was rooting for Carrie because I’m such a fan of hers, and I’m so jealous of her voice and her legs and everything else she has.”

Hunter Hayes‘ collaboration with Stevie Wonder was a long time in the making. Hunter has been a huge fan of the R&B icon for years now, and he said backstage “I was fortunate enough to get to meet Stevie last year, and we talked about collaborating.”

Fast forward to Sunday night’s ACM Awards, and Hunter is sharing the stage with Stevie for a performance of Stevie’s hit “Sir Duke.” Hunter admitted it was quite surreal even to rehearse with Stevie saying, “I just looked at every one of the guys in the band. And we’re just all in awe that this is happening. I mean, it’s something I’ve been dreaming of forever, and it finally happened. It’s amazing.”

Stevie had nothing but high praise for Hunter backstage. He said, “He’s the kind of artist  that we talk about when we say we want to bring love back to music and bring people and unity back to music. Well, this man, has that in him. So, I just say today is just the beginning of the best part of the rest of his life.”

Jason Aldean was truly surprised to win Male Vocalist of the Year at the ACM Awards. Even though Jason’s had a stellar year with hits like “1994,” “The Only Way I Know” and “Take a Little Ride,” he was going up against his very successful buddies Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Eric Church and veteran star Toby Keith.

Jason said backstage, “It was something that I always hoped I would win at some point in my career. So, to finally have it under my belt feels really good.”

Jason also won his second straight Vocal Event of the Year trophy for “The Only Way I Know” with Eric Church and Luke Bryan. He won it last year with Kelly Clarkson for “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” and Jason joked, “Maybe they’ll rename the award after me or something if this keeps up.”

Eric Church won Album of the Year for Chief, and that project was named Album of the Year last year at the other big country show, the CMA Awards. Eric joked backstage, “I gotta quit saying it ’cause it’s the only one we win, but it’s the one award I want the most. The Album of the Year is the one that’s most special to me.”

Little Big Town’s Vocal Group of the Year caps off an incredible run for the foursome thanks to their #1 hits “Pontoon” and “Tornado.” The group’s Karen Fairchild said backstage, “We’re just so grateful to have this moment. You know, we know it only comes around every once in awhile. We’re just enjoying it so much.”

Thompson Square took their second consecutive Vocal Duo of the Year trophy Sunday at the ACM Awards. Even though it wasn’t their first win, the duo’s Keifer Thompson said backstage, “I truly can’t believe this is our life. We never thought we would do anything like this.”

Thompson Square is currently on the road with Luke Bryan, who co-hosted the show this year with Blake Shelton. Luke was there when they got offstage from accepting their award, and he handed both of them a drink in red Solo cups to celebrate the win.

“He was ready to party,” said the duo’s Shawna Thompson.

As for Luke’s job co-hosting the show for the first time with Blake Shelton, Shawna adds, “It’s the perfect combination of personalities.”

Florida Georgia Line took home the fan-voted New Artist of the Year trophy, and the duo’s Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley still can’t believe they’re actually winning ACM Awards now.

Tyler said, “Literally this time last year were sitting on the couch eating Jet’s Pizza talking to my roommate about, ‘It’s gonna be really cool. Maybe one day we can go to that award, you know, that awards show.'”

Florida Georgia Line plans to take their ACM Award on the road with them so their fans can see it and touch it at their concerts.

“Our fans mean everything to us,” Brian said. “We wouldn’t be here without them, so that’s what it’s all about. Absolutely.”

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Luke Bryan was richly rewarded for co-hosting the ACM Awards for the very first time on Sunday night: he took home the night’s top honor.

In the biggest surprise of Sunday night’s telecast, which aired live from Las Vegas on CBS, Luke was named Entertainer of the Year, beating out his ACM Awards co-host Blake Shelton, as well as Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift.  He’s the first male artist to win the award since 2007, when Kenny Chesney took it home.  Since then, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood have each won the fan-voted award twice.

A visibly emotional Luke struggled to hold back tears as he told the crowd, “This is the defining moment of my life and it means the world to me, and I will never take it for granted.”  He added, “What I always wanted to be was just a country singer that got to ride on a tour bus and show up at a new stage and play music every night…every time I step on stage, it is a blessing to play for fans.”  Noting that he’d just started headlining his own tours, Luke also thanked all the artists for whom he’s opened — those he “watched from the side of the stage” — who he said taught him how to be a better entertainer.

Luke was presented his award by Shania Twain, making her first appearance on the ACM Awards in a decade.  At one point, Blake Shelton hugged Shania, and then made an “all right!” gesture, indicating that embracing the Canadian singer was a long-held dream of his.

The night’s other big winner was Blake’s wife, Miranda Lambert, who was named Female Vocalist of the Year for the fourth straight year.  She also picked up the awards for Single and Song of the Year for “Over You,” the song she co-wrote with Blake about his late brother.  Miranda is now one of only three women to have won Female Vocalist four or more times: Reba McEntire and Loretta Lynn are the others.

Accepting the Female Vocalist award, Miranda said, “I thought for sure Carrie had it this year, and she damn well deserves it!”  Then, in tears, she said, “Last night a huge dream of mine came true…I went from being a little girl singing into a hairbrush to watching Shania Twain with Faith Hill, Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson.”  She was referring to the fact that she, Faith, Reba and Kelly all went to see Shania’s Las Vegas show at Caesars Palace on Saturday night.

Jason Aldean was named Male Vocalist of the Year — his first win in that category — and his collaboration with Luke and Eric Church, “Only Way I Know How,” was named Vocal Event of the Year.  It was his second consecutive win in that category: he won last year for “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” his duet with Kelly Clarkson.

Eric Church’s Chief was named Album of the Year, and he was presented with his trophy by rock legend John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Accepting the trophy, a surprised Eric said, “I can’t believe I just met John Fogerty! We should hang out later.”

Little Big Town was named Vocal Group of the Year and earned Video of the Year honors for “Tornado,” while Thompson Square took home the Vocal Duo of the Year prize.  Florida Georgia Line captured the fan-voted Best New Artist Award.   Taylor Swift, who was up for five awards, went home empty-handed.

But of course, the ACM Awards are really all about the musical performances: the first award wasn’t handed out until about 50 minutes into the telecast, and overall, a whopping 25 performances were crammed into the three-hour show, including some unique collaborations:

–After Hunter Hayes debuted his new single “I Want Crazy,” he teamed up with music legend Stevie Wonder for a version of Stevie’s classic #1 hit “Sir Duke,” which had everyone in the audience singing along.  Stevie then closed out the show with another classic, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours),” joined by Blake and Luke.

–A tearful Reba introduced a special tribute to the late Dick Clark — whose production company first brought the ACM Awards to TV — starring George Strait and Garth Brooks, together for the first time.  Garth began by singing his touching hit “The Dance,” and then joined George for a version of “The Cowboy Rides Away” as footage of Clark played in the background.

—Tim McGraw performed “Highway Don’t Care” with Taylor Swift while Keith Urban shredded on guitar. 

–Brad Paisley was joined by Hunter Hayes and Dierks Bentley for his new song “Outstanding in Our Field,” and then by pop star John Mayer for another new song, “Beat This Summer.”   Both songs are from Brad’s new album, Wheelhouse, which is out on Tuesday.

–Blake kicked off the show with “Boys ‘Round Here,” featuring Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan, Sheryl Crow and Pistol Annies.

As for the job that Blake and Luke did co-hosting the show for the first time, their banter mostly involved them busting on each other for their alleged lack of talent and the relative tightness of their jeans.  Luke wasn’t as smooth in his delivery as Blake, but he did just fine, considering he didn’t have Blake’s years of experience both co-hosting the show with Reba, and appearing on-camera weekly on a hit reality show.

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Here are the winners of the 48th Annual ACM Awards, held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Sunday night:

Entertainer of the Year
Luke Bryan

Male Vocalist
Jason Aldean

Female Vocalist
Miranda Lambert

Vocal Duo of the Year 
Thompson Square

Vocal Group of the Year
Little Big Town

Album of the Year
Chief, Eric Church

Song of the Year (Award to Songwriter)
“Over You,” Miranda Lambert (Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton)

Single Record
“Over You,” Miranda Lambert

Video of the Year
“Tornado,” Little Big Town

Vocal Event of the Year
“The Only Way I Know,” Jason Aldean with Luke Bryan and Eric Church

New Artist of the Year
Florida Georgia Line

Jana Kramer,  New Female Vocalist Winner
Brantley Gilbert, New Male Vocalist Winner
Florida Georgia Line, New Vocal Duo or Group Winner

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