By India McCarty
Reba McEntire is giving all the glory to God as she celebrates her 50th anniversary in the country music industry.
“[I’m] very grateful, very thankful,” she told PEOPLE as she reflected on the milestone. “And I never thought at the 20th anniversary that I’d be hitting this one. But I have to give a lot of credit to people who have been before me — Tammy [Wynette], Dolly [Parton], Loretta [Lynn] — who have paved the roads for girl singers of my generation and the ones that are coming up after me. So it’s been a lot of fun.”
McEntire continued, “God gave me a gift and I try to use it and to give Him all the praise and the glory. Because without Him I wouldn’t have had it and could have given it to somebody else, so I try to make Him proud.”
Reba McEntire is also celebrating another big milestone: her 18th time hosting the Academy of Country Music Awards.
“I am tickled to pieces to get to host the ACM Awards for the 17th time!” she said in a statement posted to the ACM website. “What an honor to have been part of the past, present and now the future of the Academy of Country Music with Amazon Prime Video.”
ACM CEO Damon Whiteside added, “We are thrilled for the homecoming of Reba to the ACM Awards stage for the 17th time!…No one has a deeper and richer history with the Academy than Reba, from her many years hosting the ACM Awards, and from her 16 ACM Awards wins including Entertainer of the Year and two ACM anniversary Milestone Awards. With exciting new music coming, extensive television presence and a worldwide fanbase, Reba’s back and better than ever!”
McEntire is also getting ready to start work on the second season of HAPPY’S PLACE, her popular sitcom. She’s called the experience “magic in a bottle,” especially as she’s gotten to reconnect with the same creative team behind her previous sitcom REBA.
“The first time we went into a table read, it was very nostalgic,” she told PEOPLE. “It was very emotional. I mean, see, I’m getting choked up right now. That’s the way it was for all of us to be so blessed. If you get one really good sitcom that lasts for six seasons, you think, ‘Man, I’ve got the golden ring. That’ll be it. Probably never do it again, because that’s magic in a bottle.’ We got it again and we realize it.”
From career milestones to new creative projects, it looks like Reba McEntire’s got a lot to celebrate these days.
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