Sam Hunt leads the list of nominated country artists at this year’s Billboard Music Awards with four nods. He’s nominated for Top Country Artist, Top Country Album for Montevallo and two nominations in the Top Country Song category for “Break Up in a Small Town” and “Take Your Time.”

Luke Bryan and Chris Stapleton follow with a pair of nods, including Top Country Artist and Top Country Album for Kill the Lights and Traveller, respectively, while Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” is up for Top Country Song.

The 2016 Billboard Music Awards will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas May 22nd.

2016 Billboard Music Awards Nominations:

Top Country Artist:
Zac Brown Band
Luke Bryan
Sam Hunt
Chris Stapleton
Carrie Underwood

Top Country Album:
Chris Stapleton, Traveller
Luke Bryan, Kill The Lights
Sam Hunt, Montevallo
Zac Brown Band, Jekyll + Hyde
Carrie Underwood, Storyteller

Top Country Song:
Sam Hunt, “Break Up In A Small Town”
Sam Hunt, “Take Your Time”
Little Big Town, “Girl Crush”
Thomas Rhett, “Die A Happy Man”
Chris Young, “I’m Comin’ Over”

Sam Hunt has been added to the list of performers at this year’s American Country Countdown Awards next month. He’ll be joined by Martina McBride, Kelsea Ballerini, Cam, Dan + Shay and Cole Swindell. Previously announced performers include Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line.

Luke is leading the list with seven nominations, while Sam follows with five.

The 2nd Annual ACC Awards will air live from The Forum in Inglewood, California May 1st beginning at 8pm ET/PT delayed.

Finalists for the 2016 American Country Countdown Awards were announced today. Luke Bryan leads the nominees with seven nods, including the night’s biggest honor, Artist of the Year. Sam Hunt has five, while Thomas Rhett and Zac Brown Band each have four.

The American Country Countdown Awards are based on country music’s longest-running radio countdown show, “American Country Countdown with Kix Brooks,” which has recognized the best in country radio for more than 40 years. This year’s host and additional performers and presenters will be announced soon.

The 2016 American Country Countdown Awards will air live from the Forum in Los Angeles, California May 1^st at 8pm ET/PT delayed on FOX. (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX. Tickets for the American Country Countdown Awards at the Forum are on sale now atwww.ticketmaster.com.
ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Blake Shelton

Florida Georgia Line

Jason Aldean

Luke Bryan

Sam Hunt 

MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

Blake Shelton

Jason Aldean

Luke Bryan

Sam Hunt

Thomas Rhett

FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

Cam

Carrie Underwood

Jana Kramer

Kelsea Ballerini

Miranda Lambert
GROUP/DUO OF THE YEAR

A Thousand Horses

Dan + Shay

Florida Georgia Line

Old Dominion

Zac Brown Band
BREAKTHROUGH MALE OF THE YEAR

Chris Janson

Michael Ray

Sam Hunt

BREAKTHROUGH FEMALE OF THE YEAR

Cam

Jana Kramer

Kelsea Ballerini

BREAKTHROUGH GROUP/DUO OF THE YEAR

A Thousand Horses

Dan + Shay

Old Dominion

SONG OF THE YEAR

“Stay A Little Longer” – Brothers Osborne

“Home Alone Tonight” – Luke Bryan featuring Karen Fairchild

“Strip It Down” – Luke Bryan

“Die A Happy Man” – Thomas Rhett

“Homegrown” – Zac Brown Band

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

“Storyteller” – Carrie Underwood

“Traveller” – Chris Stapleton

“Kill the Lights” – Luke Bryan

“Montevallo” – Sam Hunt

“Jekyll + Hyde” – Zac Brown Band

DIGITAL SONG OF THE YEAR

“Girl Crush” – Little Big Town

“Kick The Dust Up” – Luke Bryan

“Die A Happy Man” – Thomas Rhett

DIGITAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR

“Anything Goes” – Florida Georgia Line

“Montevallo” – Sam Hunt

“Tangled Up” – Thomas Rhett

TOURING ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Garth Brooks

Kenny Chesney

Luke Bryan

Shania Twain

Zac Brown Band

AMERICAN COUNTRY COUNTDOWN AWARDS finalists and winners for all categories are based on radio airplay charts, sales and streaming data from April 1, 2015 to March 28, 2016 provided by BuzzAngle Music. Touring data is from Pollstar “The Concert Hotwire.” The NASH Icon Award is chosen by The American Country Countdown.

Eric Church’s surprise release, Mr. Misunderstood, Sam Hunt’s Montevallo and Chris Stapleton’s Traveller are up for Album of the Year at this year’s ACM Awards. They’re nominated alongside Thomas Rhett’s Tangled Up and Chris Young’s I’m Coming Over.

Eric says inspiration struck unexpectedly for his Mr. Misunderstood album, and that’s why he ended up with a new album in 10 days. “Really inspiration is kind of what led [to the Mr. Misunderstood album]. I sat down one day to write. I had no intentions and nobody needing an album,” he says. “We’d just finished ‘The Outsiders’ and we’d just finished ‘Wrecking Ball,’ and I was writing and one day led to another day. You get into grooves and inspiration strikes you as a songwriter, and all of a sudden something was happening to me three, four, five days in in a row that had never happened, where every day a song was being written that sounded like a record. All of a sudden I had one, and I knew it, and I decided to go in and just record one song and 10 days later I had an album.”
Sam, who has experienced nearly unequaled success with his debut album, hopes folks listen to the record with open hearts and minds. “The record is hopefully diverse enough to reach people of several different tastes,” he says. “If there is something I could say to someone that was about to listen to this record for the first time, I would hope that they could put aside any preconceived notions or any direction that whatever they have stumbled across before has given them, they could open their mind and just listen to the music with an open mind and open heart and just see how they feel about it; see how it makes them feel.”

Chris Stapleton has had such a huge journey over the past year, and especially the last six months, and his Traveller album has been No. 1 on the country charts nearly every week since the CMA Awards last November. He says the title of the album is quite representative of the songs that appear on the record. “It seemed like a natural thing to call it, because a lot of, certainly the inspiration for this record came from a series of events. It’s kind of the only song that was written inside of, well, there might’ve been one other song written inside of knowing I was going to make this record in this way. The rest of the songs came from outside of that time period,” he says. “So, that’s one reason to name it that. The other reason is that it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It’s about a journey in a musical sense and in a physical sense and in a spiritual sense. In every way that you can have a journey, this record is kind of that for me, and hopefully for some other folks too.”

The 51st Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Luke and Dierks Bentley, will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas April 3rd at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.

Keith Urban performed at a private 40th birthday celebration in L.A. on Saturday (March 19th) for Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon. He teamed up with Taylor Swift on her hit “Shake It Off,” and later accompanied Reese and the rest of the party-goers on a rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” the same title as her 2002 film. Other guests included Jennifer Aniston and her husband, actor Justin Theroux, Matthew McConaughey, Katie Hudson, Courtney Cox, Robert Downey, Jr. and Keith’s wife, Nicole Kidman.

Lady Antebellum, Sam Hunt and Kacey Musgraves will perform during the Windy City LakeShake festival June 17th – 19th in Chicago. Joining them will be Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett and Martina McBride, among others.

Mickey Guyton, Canaan Smith and Lauren Alaina are featured in the new issue of NASH Country Weekly magazine in their Spring Fashion article. They, along with Granger Smith, modeled different looks for spring and talked about their style on and off-stage.

Darius Rucker will host his seventh annual Darius and Friends benefit concert at the Wildhorse Saloon June 6^th (as the unofficial start to the CMA Music Festival). Tickets for the show, with proceeds going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, go on sale Thursday (March 24th).

David Nail was in South Carolina over the weekend for the NeedtoBreathe Golf Classic. NeedtoBreathe is a Christian Rock band, who’ve won numerous Gospel Music Awards and topped the Christian charts.

The members of Little Big Town were apparently hanging out with superstar Justin Timberlake, writing songs . He shared a photo on his socials of him with LBT’s Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman and wrote, “NBD… Just writing with @littlebigtown This band is the truth!! So good!!!!”

Luke Bryan and Chris Stapleton have been added to the list of performers at next month’s ACM Awards. They’re joined by Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw and Thomas Rhett. Previously announced performers include Keith Urban, Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Sam Hunt, Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Kelsea Ballerini, Cam and Florida Georgia Line.

The 51st Academy of Country Music Awards, which will be hosted by Luke and Dierks, will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas April 3rd at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.

Sam Hunt is nominated for the Radio Disney Country Favorite Artist. The Radio Disney Music Awards will take place April 30th from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles and air May 1st at 7pm ET on the Disney Channel.

Lauren Alaina will appear on CMT Hot 20 Countdown on Saturday (March 12th) on 9pm ET and will re-air Sunday (March 13th) at 9pm ET.

Eric Church is set to perform a two-night stand at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Billy Joe Shaver will open for Eric Saturday, April 30th, while Marty Stuart is set for May 1st. Tickets go on sale Friday (March 11th).

Alan Jackson’s Live From Red Rocks special premiered Sunday night (March 6th) on AXS TV.

Chris Janson and Tracy Lawrence have been added to this year’s All for the Hall benefit for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena April 12th.

Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and Sam Hunt, as well as Kelsea Ballerini, have been announced as the latest performers for this year’s ACM Awards. They join previously announced performers Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Cam and Florida Georgia Line.

This year, Eric Church is nominated for six ACM Awards (including Entertainer of the Year), and Dierks Bentley and Sam Hunt each received two nominations. Additional acts and presenters will be announced in the coming weeks.

The 51st Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Dierks and Luke Bryan, will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas April 3rd at 8pm ET/delayed PT on CBS.

Dierks Bentley will hit the ice with the Nashville Predators on Sunday (February 27th) in the alumni game against the St. Louis Blues alumni.

Charles Kelley will appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday (March 2nd).

If you want to light up your life, you can do so with a David Nail candle. Inspired by the romantic themes of his hit song, “Night’s On Fire,” the candle boasts the earthy aroma of sage, oak and lavender to relax the body while the lively aromas of orange and amber awaken the mind! Night’s On Fire is subtle and enticing. 12 ounce soy wax candle with an 80 hour burn time housed in a repurposed wine bottle!

Little Big Town is set to receive the Artist of the Year award from the Music Business Association. The band will accept the award during the 2016 Music Biz Awards Luncheon May 18th. Sam Hunt will be honored with the Breakthrough Artist Award.

Toby Keith has been added to The Life & Songs of Kris Kristofferson along with Hank Williams Jr., Martina McBride, Jennifer Nettles, Lee Ann Womack and Jack Ingram. The concert taping, which pays tribute to the famed singer-songwriter-actor, will take place March 16 at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Previously announced artists include Lady Antebellum, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Darius Rucker, Emmylou Harris, Jamey Johnson, Willie Nelson and Trisha Yearwood.

Little Big Town will appear as guest judges on Project Runway All Stars on Thursday night (February 25th). The contestants are tasked with creating looks for the fashionable ladies to wear to this year’s ACM Awards. The show airs at 9pm ET on Lifetime.

The official music video for Dierks Bentley‘s “Somewhere on a Beach” will premiere this Friday (February 26th) on VEVO.  The Behind-the-Scenes of the clip will debut on Break.com.

Video link: http://vevo.ly/4GyHH4

Buy Link: http://umgn.us/SomewhereOnABeach

Chris Stapleton’s Traveller is on the short list for the inaugural American Music Prize, along with debut albums by Azealia Banks, Benjamin Booker and Leon Bridges, among others. The winner is set to be announced March 2nd.

This week, Sam Hunt helped present one of the Grammy Amplifier Program Awards (by Hyundai and the Recording Academy) to Adley Stump, a member of Blake Shelton’s team on Season 2 of The Voice. She will receive one of three prizes – a recording session, a live performance showcase or a music video. “It takes a whole lot of passion, commitment and conviction to put yourself out there, to enter a competition and to be judged,” said Sam in a press release. “There is no formula for making it in this business, but American Bombshell, Kirby and Adley have been given a tremendous opportunity to learn and grow as musicians. There’s absolutely nothing that gives us more pleasure than to be a part of an initiative like the Grammy Amplifier program that gives these aspiring talents opportunities that will help them to develop their crafts.”