Country duo The War and Treaty have earned their career-first ACM nomination in the Duo of the Year category. 

This marks a milestone and historic moment for both the husband-and-wife pair and the country genre, as it’s the first time a Black duo has been nominated in this category. 

“We feel the responsibility of it, but we also feel the joy of it, as well,” The War and Treaty’s Tanya Trotter tells ABC Audio, noting “how everything is moving forward in our country.” “People are being exposed to all different kinds of music and loving all different kinds of music. We’re extremely excited about it.”

“We’re a married couple,” she adds, “[and the first] African American couple to be nominated. So this is historic for us and for our country.”

How did The War and Treaty celebrate their nomination, then? Well, it involved lots of emotions and burning meat, unintentionally. 

“My son was like, ‘What’s going on?’ He’s 11. We were just screaming and sobbing and eating pancakes and bacon,” Michael Trotter recalls of the morning they found out about their ACM nominations. “And burning up bacon! I burned all the bacon up,” Tanya adds with a laugh. 

The War and Treaty’s latest album, Lover’s Game, is out now.

The 58th Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks, will stream live on Amazon Prime Video May 11 at 7 p.m. ET.

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