CMA Nominations: Accomplishments & Acknowledgments Inside & Outside the Awards
It’s that time of year again: Country Music Association Awards Nominations. Another year of noteworthy categories, hard to imagine only narrowing it down to the top five. Let's start with the Entertainer of The Year- includes all the staples, including this year Chris Stapleton, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Eric Church and Keith Urban.
Keith Urban also made it into the Single of The Year and Song of The Year categories with Blue Ain’t Your Color. Among the nominees also double dipping in these two categories are Little Big Town/Taylor Swift for Better Man, song written by T Swift cut and recorded with the harmonies of Little Big Town, and Miranda Lambert’s emotionally raw and personal Tin Man. Jon Pardi made the lists with Dirt on My Boots. Closing out both categories is Sam Hunt’s huge hit of the summer Body Like A Back Road. Sam has another cross over on his hands with this one, radio stations in addition to country ones have it on repeat and Sam just sold out Madison Square Garden on his 15 in a 30 Tour.
Little Big Town and Miranda also find themselves in the running for Album of The Year. Little Big Town just announced their new tour for the nominated album The Breaker with special guests Kacey Musgraves and Midland. The Breaker Tour is coming to the iconic Radio City Music Hall February 24th. Miranda Lambert just shared a sweet post about her 2 year relationship with Anderson East, but the honesty that came out of her divorce with Blake Shelton was left all out on the table in her album Weight of These Wings. Entertainer of the Year nominee Chris Stapleton made it into this category with his album From A Room: Volume 1. Lady Antebellum felt really good about taking a full hiatus from their rigorous routine of touring and writing on the road. No doubt they came back inspired and more refreshed than ever and landed themselves with an Album of The Year nomination for Heart Break.
Lady A recently wrapped up the US leg of their You Look Good World Tour. Their touring mate Kelsea Ballerini is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year. The young artist has been such a thrill to watch take on chapter two of her career. Growth as a writer and a performer this superstar is taking on the world. With her second album Unapologetically scheduled for release November 3rd, she also has been teasing fans with an advanced release of her song High School which fans should anticipate this Friday 9/22. Kelsea wrote High School right after she completed her first album The First Time, but not to worry there are plenty of new songs about her bright future with Australian singer songwriter Morgan Evans. Evans also released his first single to American country radio this year titled Kiss Somebody. Might have another equally powerful engaged couple on the scenes alongside Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd. Ryan’s proposal to Maren earlier in July was one of the many exciting life events for the Female Vocalist nominee. She recently had the honor of playing for a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden and fans will be excited to know she’s been busy writing for the second album! Can’t wait for a follow up to Hero!
This is the second year in a row Maren swept away with an armful of nominations. Her duet with Thomas Rhett Craving You earned her nominations for Musical Event of The Year and Music Video of The Year. Her counterpart has earned a spot in the Male Vocalist of the Year line up, along with Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Chris Stapleton, and Keith Urban. Thomas has had a lot of life changes this year, his new album Life Changes is a snapshot of his whole world and who he is. Thomas now has two baby girls Willa Grey and Ada James and if the world loved watching his relationship with Lauren they are going to love watching the two adjust to parenthood even more. Life Changes earned Thomas Rhett the #1 album spot on the top 200 Billboard Chart where no other country artist has been in 2017!
The competition is high for Vocal Group of the Year with both Lady Antebellum and Old Dominion claiming a spot. Both had a number 1 album this year with the release of Heart Break and Old Dominion’s highly anticipated 2nd album Happy Endings. Old Dominion also can be found in the New Artist of the Year category, along with Lady Antebellum’s second touring mate Brett Young. Old Dominion already had their first headlining tour, the Meat and Candy Tour, Brett Young however is just heading out on a small headlining tour with Carly Pearce. The Caliville Tour starts 10/14, the day after Carly’s debut album Every Little Thing releases 10/13.
Sam Hunt wasn’t the only one who was crossing genre lines this year. Vocal Group Duo of the Year nominee Florida Georgia Line has been collaborating with many different artists ranging from the Backstreet Boys to The Chainsmokers. Their hit God, Your Momma, and Me brought the Backstreet Boys back to radio. FGL was featured on The Chainsmokers album Memories Do Not Open on the last song on the album Last Day Alive. The duo joined forces with Bebe Rexha on her All Your Fault Pt. 2 EP for the song Meant to Be. Hailee Steinfeld also finally released new music featuring FGL titled Let Me Go. Florida Georgia Line is definitely one of the busiest guys in this category inside and outside of the CMA’s.
The full list of nominees can be found here http://www.cmaworld.com/cma-awards/nominees/ . CMA Awards airs live Wednesday November 8th on ABC, with Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood hosting for the 10th consecutive year in a row. Lot’s of accomplishments to celebrate this year, make sure not to miss a thing!
