Dolly Parton, Katy Perry to Duet on ACM Awards
The 51st Academy of Country Music Awards will get a double dose of superstar power when Dolly Parton teams up with pop singer Katy Perry for a duet performance on the April 3rd telecast. It will be Parton’s first time performing with Perry, and the pair is expected to sing two Parton classics, including “Coat of Many Colors.”
“She got the big idea, ‘Why don’t we sing ‘Jolene’ together?’ Because she loves that song and since it’s going to be one of the [television] movies I go, ‘Yeah, why not?'” Parton tells Rolling Stone Country. “So I’m going to try to combine ‘Coat of Many Colors’ and ‘Jolene.'”
Additionally, Parton’s work on the biographical film Coat of Many Colors has earned her the ACM’s Tex Ritter Award, presented to a movie released in the previous year that features country music.
“To be up there with the great stories like Coal Miner’s Daughter and O Brother and Walk the Line, it’s like you say, ‘Wow, all those were feature films, and this one was just a movie of the week on television,'” Parton says of the NBC TV-movie, which premiered in December to a record audience.
Parton recently announced a new album, Pure and Simple With Dolly’s Biggest Hits, and an extensive tour to follow. She and Perry join previously announced ACM Awards performers Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Sam Hunt, Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton and many others.
The 51st ACM Awards air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Sunday, April 3rd, at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBS.