Keith Urban leads list of ACM Awards nominations with seven in five categories, including his seventh nod for Entertainer of the Year and 10th nod for Male Vocalist of the Year. Keith is nominated twice, as both artist and producer, in the Album of the Year category for Ripcord. He received an additional two nominations, for both artist and producer, in the Single Record of the Year category for “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” which is also nominated in the Song of the Year category.
ACM Awards co-host Dierks Bentley received three nominations, including his fourth nomination in the Male Vocalist of the Year category. Also, Dierks received his third nod in the Album of the Year category for Black, and his second nod in the Vocal Event of the Year category for “Different For Girls,” featuring Elle King, which the pair won at last year’s CMA Awards.
Reigning ACM Male Vocalist of the Year Chris Stapleton is nominated in three categories. Once again, Stapleton is nominated in both the Male Vocalist of the Year category, and the Song of the Year category with “Tennessee Whiskey.” Also, Stapleton received a nod in the Video of the Year category for “Fire Away,” which stars actors Ben Foster (Lone Survivor, Inferno) and Margarita Levieva (Revenge, The Blacklist). The video concept, which Chris envisioned, centered on mental health issues and helped raise awareness for the Campaign to Change Direction. The video has also picked up an award in the same category at last year CMA Awards.
Luke Bryan and Keith Urban are among the Entertainer of the Year nominees, along with Carrie Underwood, Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean.
The 52nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley, will be broadcast live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas April 2nd at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.
Following is the list of final nominees and find audio with many of the nominees below.
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Jason Aldean
Luke Bryan
Florida Georgia Line
Carrie Underwood
Keith Urban
MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Jason Aldean
Dierks Bentley
Thomas Rhett
Chris Stapleton
Keith Urban
FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Kelsea Ballerini
Miranda Lambert
Kacey Musgraves
Maren Morris
Carrie Underwood
VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR
Big & Rich
Brothers Osborne
Dan & Shay
Florida Georgia Line
Maddie & Tae
VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Eli Young Band
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
Old Dominion
Rascal Flatts
NEW MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR PRESENTED BY T-MOBILE — WON
Jon Pardi
NEW VOCAL DUO OR GROUP OF THE YEAR PRESENTED BY T-MOBILE — WON
Brothers Osborne
ALBUM OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company–Label(s)]
Black – Dierks Bentley
Dig Your Roots – Florida Georgia Line
HERO – Maren Morris
Ripcord – Keith Urban
The Weight of These Wings – Miranda Lambert
Single Record of the Year [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company–Label(s)]
Blue Ain’t Your Color – Keith Urban
H.O.L.Y. – Florida Georgia Line
Humble And Kind – Tim McGraw
My Church – Maren Morris
Vice – Miranda Lambert
SONG OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Songwriter(s)/Publisher(s)/Artist(s)]
Blue Ain’t Your Color – Keith Urban
Songwriters: Clint Lagerberg, Hillary Lindsey, Steven Lee Olsen
Die A Happy Man – Thomas Rhett
Songwriters: Thomas Rhett, Sean Douglas, Joe Spargur
Humble And Kind – Tim McGraw
Songwriter: Lori McKenna
Kill A Word – Eric Church Featuring Rhiannon Giddens
Songwriters: Eric Church, Luke Dick, Jeff Hyde
Tennessee Whiskey – Chris Stapleton
Songwriters: Dean Dillon, Linda Hargrove
Vice – Miranda Lambert
Songwriters: Miranda Lambert, Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne
Video of the Year PRESENTED BY XFINITY [Awarded to Producer(s)/Director(s)/Artist(s)]
Fire Away – Chris Stapleton
Forever Country – Artists of Then, Now & Forever
Humble And Kind – Tim McGraw
Peter Pan – Kelsea Ballerini
Vice – Miranda Lambert
Vocal Event of the Year [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company–Label(s)]
Different For Girls – Dierks Bentley Featuring Elle King
Forever Country – Artists of Then, Now & Forever
May We All – Florida Georgia Line Featuring Tim McGraw
Setting The World On Fire – Kenny Chesney Featuring P!nk
Think Of You – Chris Young Featuring Cassadee Pope
Audio / Keith Urban, who is nominated for Entertainer of the Year, says he loves playing live.
DownloadKeith Urban (ACM Entertainer of the Year) OC: …extraordinary. :20
“I’ve always loved putting on concerts and tours and shows and really trying to put on something that’s incredibly entertaining and engaging, so I probably obsess about that part of what I do equal to making records, for sure. So, to get that nomination, along with the Album at this point, is extraordinary.”
Audio / Keith Urban’s Ripcord is nominated for Album of the Year at this year’s ACM Awards, and he says he loves making records.
DownloadKeith Urban (what made Ripcord) OC: …made Ripcord. :17
“I love making music I love making records. I really do, and I’m curious and passionate and hungry about where my art can go. That’s really what drives me completely and it’s what made Ripcord.”
Audio / Keith Urban explains the first time he heard his multi-week No. 1 song, “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” which is nominated for both ACM Single and Song of the Year.
DownloadKeith Urban (1st time he heard Blue) OC: …in the studio. :31
“I just know when I heard ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color’ for the first time, it just struck me as one of those rare songs that encompass so many things in it. I couldn’t even label what it was, what style it was. It’s got a bit of soul, it’s got a bit of blues, it’s got a bit of country, it’s got just a big mix of all good things. Lyrically, it’s just an incredible song, incredible song. [It’s got] great melody, great lyric. I was so hopin’ I could do the song justice when we got in the studio.”
Audio / Luke Bryan talks about being named Entertainer of the Year from both the ACM Awards and CMA Awards.
DownloadLuke Bryan (Entertainer wins) OC: …got it right. :49
“The title is what it is, you know? I mean, my focus in life when I’m on stage is entertaining these fans. If it’s my smile and my demeanor, if it’s my song that does it, if it’s me picking up a child out of the audience and letting them sing, it’s not being so premeditated that you can see it from a mile away. I mean, my main thing is be a fan up there that just gets to sing. That’s kind of how I’ve always approached it, and being called the Entertainer of the Year makes me want to do that to the best of my ability every night for the rest of my life as long as I’m on stage. I want people to leave my shows and go, ‘You know what? Whoever’s voting him Entertainer of the Year, they got it right.’”
Audio / Dierks Bentley says his ACM-nominated album, Black, shows a lot of growth and maturity.
DownloadDierks Bentley (growth in album) OC: …understand it. :56
“The record when people listen to it, they’re gonna hear right away that it’s about relationships and hopefully, project their own history and storyline and relationships into this particular album. For me, it has a thread of this guy who starts off in this one place with the song ‘Black,’ kind of in the moment with this one girl and then the cracks and the fissures start to show themselves. The next song, ‘Pick Up,’ you have this desperation and then ‘I’ll Be the Moon,’ there’s some deception going on, and then it just kind of goes from there. It’s a real story about just the highs and lows and really the maturity that I guess I go through, this singer goes through, throughout the album. You know the same guy that’s singing ‘Somewhere on a Beach,’ by the end of the record is singing a song called ‘Different for Girls,’ where he’s obviously matured enough to see that there is a different way that girls and guys handle breakups sometimes and there’s also a stereotype that goes along with that unfortunately, as well, too. A lot of growth throughout the record, but it’s all about relationships and this one person’s journey through love and trying to understand it.”
Audio / Eric Church is nominated for Song of the Year for his recent Top 5 single, “Kill a Word,” Featuring Rhiannon Giddens. He cowrote the song with Luke Dick and Jeff Hyde, and it strikes a chord with how the world is today.
DownloadEric Church (Kill a Word) OC: …positive way. :34
“‘Kill a Word’ is as proud I’ve ever been as a songwriter, not only because of a turn of phrase and the way the lyrics are, but just the message. I think that the society that we live in today, if you don’t hear this song and look around and see how it relates to the world we live in, then I can’t help you, because it’s so true with everything that’s going on. It’s one of those songs that strikes a chord that I know in my career we’ve never struck, and I hope it strikes something for a lot of people in a positive way.”
Audio / Chris Stapleton explains why he recorded his ACM-Nominated Song of the Year, “Tennessee Whiskey,” which appears on his double-platinum album, Traveller.
DownloadChris Stapleton (Tennessee Whiskey) OC: …version of it. :41
“‘Tennessee Whiskey’ is a song that I love, you know I love great country songs and songwriters, and this is certainly one that is a great country song written by great country songwriters and performed by a great country artists. Certainly, if you try to cover a George Jones or David Allan Coe, you can’t try to out-George Jones George Jones or anything like that. So, if you’re gonna cover something like that, you need to try to move away from that and hopefully make it your own. We kind of happened upon this way of playing this song and had fun with it live and felt like it was something to record that was a good tip of the hat to things we grew up on and loved. I think it’s a unique and interesting version of it.”
Audio / Chris Stapleton talks about his ACM-nominated Music Video of the Year, “Fire Away.”
DownloadChris Stapleton (Fire Away CMA video) OC: …the video. 1:03
“The label kept asking me if I was going to do a video for the record, and they kept asking what I wanted to do. We were in this meeting hall at the label, and I said, ‘Here’s what I want to do. Here’s the idea,’ and I got dead silence out of it, and they thought I was a crazy man for a minute. Then they went back and thought about it and everybody got on board with it and we found Tim who was a remarkable director to direct, and I had this crazy idea to get Ben Foster in the video and I didn’t know him at all [laughs] at the time, and he was kind enough to do it. He brought in the actual reason for doing it, which was to raise the awareness. I had the idea for a storyline, and then everything happened very organically with that video and he brought Margarita in to play the female role in that video. It became something hopefully that has value beyond just being a video for the sake of doing a video. That’s what I liked about the video.”
Audio / Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley said he and his bandmates will never take an awards nomination for granted.
DownloadLady Antebellum (Charles happy to be nominated) OC: …means a lot. :31
“Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean you can’t take that for granted. There’s always going to be a new crop of groups and musicians that … and there should be. That’s what the music business is about. That’s what fans want. I mean, I always want something new. I’m always craving it, and so hopefully all this stuff kind of as groups and as artists helps motivate you to be creative and come up with something unique and different. So we never take it for granted because there will be a time when we won’t be in those categories and you know, so, you’re still in the game; you’re still playing on a pretty high level and so that means a lot.”
Audio / Carrie Underwood talks about "Forever Country," which is nominated for ACM Video of the Year and Vocal Event of the Year.
DownloadCarrie Underwood (Forever Country song) OC: …without her. :35
“Well, I think the all three song choices were perfect. When I kind of first heard the idea of them mashing up ‘I Will Always Love You,’ ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ and ‘On The Road Again’ I was like, ‘How’s that gonna work?,’ because they’re three very different songs by three very different artists. I’m honored to be a part of it and to be singing parts on ‘I Will Always Love You,’ which I actually do in my tour set. So, it’s perfect. And it’s perfect…it’s perfect that Dolly ends it too. It wouldn’t have been right for us to do it without her.”
Audio / Kacey Musgraves talks about the ACM-nominated "Forever Country."
DownloadKacey Musgraves talks about being a part of “Forever Country.”
Kacey Musgraves (Forever Country song) OC: …pretty special. :30
“This project is crazy. I really respect the roots of the genre, the traditions of it. I just really love it. So it’s been really fun for me to take that, which inspires me, and mix it with my own new ideas, and me as a 27-year-old girl in 2016 and make it my own thing. So, being a part of this song, a song with my peers but also with these amazing icons and legends is pretty special.”
