The Academy of Country Music announced Chris Stapleton as recipient of their first ever ACM Artist-Songwriter of the Decade Award.

The ACM Artist-Songwriter of the Decade Award is defined as an artist who has commercially released material, written in whole or in part by the artist. This award recognizes a songwriter whose creative works and performance have impacted country music over the decade. The factors to be considered are, but are not limited to success at radio, commercial media, sales and streaming, artistic merit and ACM Award recognition.

For more information on the ACM Awards and all ACM events, visit www.ACMcountry.com. You can like Academy of Country Music on Facebook or follow on Twitter at @ACMawards and Instagram @ACMAwards for more immediate updates.