You may not recognize the name yet, but you’ve probably heard her voice. The 61st Annual ACM Awards kick off tonight at 8 PM eastern live from Las Vegas, and there are a lot of familiar names leading the way when it comes to the nominees. Megan Moroney leads the way with nine nominations, the most of any artist, with Miranda Lambert close behind with eight and Ella Langley and Lainey Wilson tied with seven each. When the nominations were announced though, there was one name in particular that it seems many weren’t as familiar with. Thelma & James received their first-ever ACM nomination for Duo of the Year, alongside Brooks & Dunn, Brothers Osborne, Muscadine Bloodline and Dan + Shay. And while you probably know the other four, you may not be as familiar with Thelma & James – although one half of the duo has a hit song you’ve probably already heard. The duo is made up of husband and wife MacKenzie Porter and Jake Etheridge. And if Porter’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she’s also a solo artist signed to Big Loud who released her debut album with the label back in 2024. A native of Canada, Porter had limited success with the album in the United States, but she released five singles that made the charts in her home country, and her debut single “Pickup” even topped the Billboard Canada chart back in 2022. Altogether, Porter has racked up four #1 hits in Canada, including three from her 2020 EP Drinkin’ Songs: The Collection. Her biggest success in the United States, though, came when Porter joined Dustin Lynch for his 2021 single “Thinking ‘Bout You.” The song was originally recorded as a duet with Lauren Alaina for Lynch’s 2020 album Tullahoma, but when it came time to release it as a single, Alaina had just recently released her then-current single “Getting Over Him,” which was a duet with Jon Pardi. Because her label wasn’t sure about having two duets on the radio at the same time, Dustin decided to re-record the song with a new female partner, and held a blind audition for his new duet partner. Well Lynch ended up selecting Porter’s version, without even knowing who she was at the time, and the song ended up reading #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. And it may have also helped him up north to have Porter on the song, which also hit #2 on the Canada Country chart. In December of 2024, Porter (who is also an actress with an extensive resumé) had recently split with her longtime manager, and sat down to write a song with her husband, Jake Etheridge. Porter says that because she didn’t have a manager, it allowed them to drop the song called “Happily Ever After You” right away, which quickly led to a record deal for the duo: “For the first time, I didn’t have a manager, so we posted it online. I didn’t have to worry, ‘Is this on brand?’ or ‘Is this part of our strategy?” We just put it up. And literally three days later, we were signing a record deal together.” The couple have been together for 12 years, but only recently started creating music together as a duo. But they’re already seeing success as Thelma & James, having racked up 15 million streams on Spotify for their debut single and scored a spot opening for Luke Combs on his My Kinda Saturday Night stadium tour. So where did the name Thelma & James come from? Well Thelma is Porter’s middle name, and was also her grandmother’s name. And James is Etheridge’s legal first name, and just happened to be his grandfather’s name. The duo released their first album, an 8-song project called Starting Over, back in September 2025. And their latest release, a single called “Alternate Ending,” was released just last month. It’s been a quick rise for the duo who went from writing and releasing their first song to being nominated alongside Brooks & Dunn for an ACM Award in just a year and a half. And there’s no doubt that they’re probably longshots to win tonight. But it’s clear that they’ve found some momentum together, so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear much more from them in the future. The post Who Are ACM Duo of the Year Nominees Thelma & James? One Half Of The Duo Had A Hit Song You Probably Already Know first appeared on Whiskey Riff.