DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? The first round of Whiskey Riff Madness 2026 is in the books, and it was easily the wildest round we’ve had since we’ve been doing this tournament. The premise this year was simple: We took 64 artists from every corner of country music, from mainstream to Texas country to red dirt to Appalachia and everything in between, and we’re letting you vote for your favorite. The seeding is based on monthly listeners on Spotify, so for everybody complaining about the seeding in the comments…blame their Spotify listeners. Well with the first round in the books, officially had more votes cast than we’ve ever had in a first round since we’ve been doing this tournament. In fact, this year we had nearly TEN TIMES the amount of votes we had for last year’s tournament, which just goes to show you how passionate these fan bases are. We had a few blowouts, a ton of close matchups, and a TON of upsets – including the biggest upset in the history of Whiskey Riff Madness. So let’s take a look at some of the results from the first round. First, the blowouts. There weren’t really a ton of them, but the biggest win of the round came not from a #1-seed but from #6-seed Eric Church, who got 88% of the vote against #11-seed Carly Pearce to move to the next round. Cody Johnson also dominated his matchup against Randy Houser with 85% of the vote, and #1-seed Luke Combs got 83% of the vote against Hailey Whitters to easily move through to the next round. The only other artists who broke 80% were Riley Green and Parker McCollum, who sailed through with wins over Chase Rice and Kelsea Ballerini. There were a ton of close matchups this year, with many going back and forth throughout the weekend. Megan Moroney was on top for a while, but in the end Billy Strings took the lead and ended up finishing with 59% of the vote. And in somewhat of a surprise, at least to me, Miranda Lambert and Midland went back and forth the entire round until Midland ultimately came out on top with 56% of the vote. The closest matchup, though, was between Lainey Wilson and Jamey Johnson, who at one point were in a dead even tie until Jamey eventually managed to pull away with 54% of the vote. We also had a ton of upsets this tournament: #5-seed Carrie Underwood never really stood a chance against #12-seed Cody Jinks, and though it was closer than I expected, #13-seed Sturgill Simpson still managed to come out on top over #4-seed Jon Pardi. Jason Aldean also lost in a blowout to the #14-seed Turnpike Troubadours (we know you think their seeding is criminal, we’ve seen your comments, but it was based on Spotify listeners) and #10-seed Colter Wall never had to sweat against #7-seed Tucker Wetmore. But now we get to the one you’ve been waiting for. The biggest upset in Whiskey Riff Madness history: #16-seed Colby Acuff over #1-seed Chris Stapleton. At one point this one wasn’t particularly close. In fact, on Friday Stapleton had 75% of the vote in this matchup. But like David taking on Goliath, Colby began to rally his dedicated fans and mounted a comeback for the ages, even having a t-shirt made for the matchup: NEVER GONNA WAVE THE WHITE FLAG. @ColbyAcuff https://t.co/iXtPHGcPWn pic.twitter.com/vFd6sWYwqN — Whiskey Riff (@WhiskeyRiff) March 21, 2026 At the time of that tweet, Colby needed around 1,000 votes to catch Stapleton. But he never gave up, and neither did his fans, and yesterday afternoon, it finally happened: His fans pushed him into the lead and never looked back, giving the Idaho native the win and the title for biggest upset in the history of Whiskey Riff Madness with 59% of the votes by the end of the round. You LOVE to see it. So let’s take a look at the bracket after the first round: And here’s a closer look at each region: South East Midwest West Some TOUGH matchups in this one. CWG vs. Muscadine Bloodline? Koe vs. Tyler Childers? Eric Church vs. Cody Johnson? I already know these are going to be tight, and every vote is going to count. You can vote at the link HERE or using the form below. Voting in this round ends on Wednesday, March 25 at 11:59 pm central time, and you can vote as many times as you’d like. So rally the fanbases for your favorite artists, because as we saw in the first round, truly anything is possible. Can’t wait to see how this one turns out. Loading…The post WHISKEY RIFF MADNESS 2026: Vote NOW To Send Your Favorite Artists To The Sweet Sixteen first appeared on Whiskey Riff.