There’s no denying that American Idol winner Scotty McCreery is a rising star in country music…

The 18-year-old part-Puerto Rican country singer was named Artist of the Year: New Artist at the second annual American Country Awards, held Monday night at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

“This is my first award. It’s a daggone Telecaster,” he said before thanking Jesus and American Idol. Before delivering his acceptance speech, he performed his latest single “The Trouble With Girls“.

McCreery beat out The Band Perry, Jerrod Niemann, The Pistol Annies and Thompson Square to win the coveted award.

Country superstar Jason Aldean dominated the night with six awards, including Artist of the Year. Meanwhile, Carrie Underwood was the most recognized female artists with three awards, including Artist of the Year: Female.

Meanwhile, McCreery’s debut album, Clear As Day, has been certified gold for racking up sales in excess of 500,000. And it only took the North Carolina-native two months to accomplish the feat.

Clear As Day currently tops the Billboard Country Albums chart, a spot it has held for five weeks.

“It’s huge! Every artist dreams of a gold album and works hard for it,” said McCreery, who . “So it’s a major accomplishment to have your debut album go gold. This is just incredible.”