This year’s ACM Awards were filled with some amazing and really effective cross-genre performances — and one of the most memorable was Chris Stapleton’s surprise live collaboration with Dua Lipa.
ET’s Rachel Smith spoke with Chris and his wife, Morgane Stapleton, backstage after the show, and the country crooner explained how Dua “threw herself into the mix” and made the whole duet come together.
“It was her idea, as far as I know. They kind of called us up and said, ‘Hey, she would like to do this.’ I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah!'” Chris recalled. “So we got on the phone and talked about it and worked on it a little bit.”
The 28-year-old “Dance the Night” singer shocked the crowd at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday, when she took the stage in an unannounced appearance and belted out the beginning of Chris’s “Think I’m in Love With You.”
Chris, 46, joined in on the number, and the pair harmonized their duet beautifully, creating one of the highlights of the whole night.
“We really only kind of put together what we did like two days ago,” Chris revealed. “So it was kind of a whirlwind of a thing to do — but it was awesome.”
ET also spoke with Dua backstage after the performance, and she explained why she’d reached out in the first place.
“It was a big dream of mine to work with Chris,” she shared, “and to have it happen tonight on the stage was really special.”
“I’m a big, big Chris Stapleton fan, that’s for sure, and I love country music,” she added. “I love the storytelling, I love the passion, and it was just so beautiful to be able to dive into that world a little bit just kind of see it first hand. It was really special.”
The 59th annual Academy of Country Music Awards streams live May 16 on Prime Video. Check out all the nominees and the full winners list.
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