The 53rd Academy of Country Music Awards will start by remembering the victims of the Vegas shooting

Courtesy of CBS/ACMThis weekend, the country community returns to Las Vegas for its first major gathering since the tragedy last October at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. So it’s only fitting that the 53rd ACM Awards will start by remembering the lives lost and forever changed by the largest mass shooting in modern American history.

Host Reba McEntire tells Extra the show will begin with “a lot of heartfelt words from a lot of different artists.”

“It will open the show and it will set the tone for how we feel towards the victims, the families, the fans,” she continues. “It affected our community, our friends. We will definitely pay tribute to the people who were affected by it.”

Fifty-eight people lost their lives when a gunman opened fire during Jason Aldean‘s October 1 set at the Las-Vegas-based country music festival.

The 53rd ACMs start Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena. 

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