Ella Langley and Riley Green

Ella Langley and Riley Green accepted an award together at the ACM Awards (Image: Getty)

One body language expert sensed some underlying tension between country stars Ella Langley and Riley Green as the pair accepted an award together at the 2026 ACM Awards.

The 61st Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards took place live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 17, with the best artists in country music being honored for their accomplishments in the genre within the past year.

During the ceremony, Riley and Ella were honored with the award for Music Event of the Year for their chart-topping duet ‘Don’t Mind If I Do.’ This comes as Ella recently opened up about her struggles with fame during Kid Rock’s Rock the Country festival in Texas.

But as the two took the stage to accept the award, one body language expert noted that Ella appeared “awkward and irritated” by Riley and his speech.

As they accepted the award, Riley said, “Thank y’all so much. I would like to start by thanking my very lovely and talented duet partner, Miss Ella Langley, for being a part of this song. I was in a green room in Fateville, Arkansas. I was sitting by myself. I wrote this song, and I knew there was something special about it.”

He continued, “And uh, we already had another big hit together, You Look Like You Love Me, and I thought, well, I need to find somebody to do this song with me. And I called Ella, uh, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the studio, and she showed up in her pajamas and sang what you hear on the track.”

Ella then quickly corrected Riley as she jumped in, “I had on jeans and a t-shirt, thank you very much.”

To which Riley jokingly responded, “She might sleep in those, I don’t know. But I knew it was never going to get any better than that, and I’m so proud of how far you’ve come, and you continue to surprise everybody with everything you do in your career. And more than anything, I’m very proud of how you represent our home state of Alabama.”

Despite Riley’s kind words, many sensed friction between the two from Ella’s body language and facial expressions throughout the speech.

The body language expert noted some awkwardness between the two (Image: Getty)

Sharing her thoughts on the interaction, body language expert Judi James, commissioned through Casino.us, told The Express US, “As Riley continues to talk, Ella feels strongly enough to interrupt to correct him. Her ‘I had jeans and a t-shirt on’ sounds awkward enough, but the way she adds an authoritative ‘thank you very much’ does suggest some inner irritation or impatience.”

The body language expert continued, “Perhaps the moment could have been passed off as a mutually playful joke because there is a tendency for winners and the people awarding a win to trade banter at the lectern, but these two don’t dissolve into the kind of mutual après-banter chuckles that would suggest the lines were planned.”

After wrapping up his speech, Riley and Ella turn to give one another a half-hearted hug before walking off the stage. Analyzing this interaction, Judi said, “He seems to pull her in for an awkward-looking half hug before leaning back to study her face in what looks like an evaluation gesture to check she’s laughing rather than feeling awkward.”

This strained interaction comes as Ella and Riley have sparked love-triangle rumors over the past year, with many fans speculating that Riley was romantically involved with both Ella and Megan Moroney at the same time, though this has not been officially confirmed.