Carrie Underwood is up for Music Video of the Year for “Cry Pretty,” as well as Female Vocalist at this year’s CMA  Awards; she’s also co-hosting the awards show, as well.has having released some pretty epic videos in her career (“Before She Cheats,” “Two Black Cadillacs,” etc.), so when it came time to film the video for “Cry Pretty,” she wanted to show the juxtaposition between the public persona and the private-sometimes you’ve got to let out your emotions side of the coin.

“For me, it’s like trying to be Carrie Underwood [and] trying to be a mom, trying to be a wife, trying to keep it all together all the time. I could be having the worst day of my life, but if I have interviews to do I’ve got to put my smile on and shut that part out and go do my job. And we all do it. I don’t care what you do. Whatever you’re doing through, there’s times when you just have to emotionally shut it off and do what you’ve got to do,’ she says. “So, I feel like being trained that way, it was nice and refreshing to kind of explore the fact that sometimes you just can’t and sometimes it’s going to come out and instead of being embarrassed or instead of being ‘Oh my gosh I can’t believe all that happened’ or ‘What are people going to think of me?’ or whatever it is that you’re scared of, sometimes you just can’t keep it together and it’s okay… there’s something so strong about it. It was like owning your emotions, and there’s just something so powerful and some strength to that.”

The 52nd Annual CMA Awards, hosted by Carrie and Brad Paisley, will broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday (November 14th) at 8pm ET/PT on ABC.

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
(Award goes to Artist and Director(s))

“Babe” – Sugarland (Featuring Taylor Swift)
Director: Anthony Mandler

“Cry Pretty” – Carrie Underwood
Director: Randee St. Nicholas

“Drunk Girl” – Chris Janson
Director: Jeff Venable

“Marry Me” – Thomas Rhett
Director: TK McKamy

“Tequila” – Dan + Shay
Director: Patrick Tracy