With six each, Chris Stapleton and Maren Morris lead the list of nominations at this year’s ACM Awards.
Chris earned nods in the categories for Entertainer, Male Artist, Song (for “Starting Over”) and Album of the Year (Starting Over) as artist, songwriter and producer.
Brothers Osborne and Kelsea Ballerini, along with ET‘s Rachel Smith revealed the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards nominees today (February 26th) on CBS This Morning.
The reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year Eric Church earned three category nominations for Entertainer, Male Artist and Music Event of the Year for Luke Combs’ “Do to Me.”
Luke Bryan picks up a pair of nominations for Entertainer of the Year and Album of the Year for Born Here Live Here Die Here, while Dierks Bentley also is nominated for two including Male Artist of the Year and Music Video of the Year for “Gone.”
Brothers Osborne are nominated for both Duo of the Year (an award they’ve won twice before) and Album of the Year for Skeletons. Keith Urban also picks up two nods…in the same category – Music Event of the Year for both “Be a Light” with Thomas Rhett, Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott and Chris Tomlin, as well as his latest single, “One Too Many” with P!nk.
Carrie Underwood earned a nod in Music Event of the Year with John Legend for “Hallelujah,” while Lauren Alaina is also nominated in Music Event of the Year for Hardy’s “One Beer,” along with Devin Dawson.
https://twitter.com/Lauren_Alaina/status/1365342084824203268
Little Big Town picks up a nomination for Group of the Year, while Maddie & Tae scored a nomination for Duo of the Year.
https://twitter.com/MaddieandTae/status/1365320131132407808
Mickey Guyton and Caylee Hammack are both nominated for New Female Artist of the Year, while Travis Denning and Parker McCollum are up for New Male Artist of the Year.
https://twitter.com/MickeyGuyton/status/1365330487636594694
https://twitter.com/Travis_Denning/status/1365305014068129801
The 56th Academy of Country Music Awards will air live from Nashville April 18th beginning at 8pm ET/7pm CT on CBS. The show will also be available to stream live and on demand on the Paramount+.
Entertainer of the Year
Luke Bryan
Eric Church
Luke Combs
Thomas Rhett
Chris Stapleton
Female Artist of the Year
Kelsea Ballerini
Miranda Lambert
Ashley McBryde
Maren Morris
Carly Pearce
Male Artist of the Year
Dierks Bentley
Luke Combs
Eric Church
Thomas Rhett
Chris Stapleton
Duo of the Year
Brooks & Dunn
Brothers Osborne
Dan + Shay
Florida Georgia Line
Maddie & Tae
Group of the Year
Lady A
Little Big Town
Old Dominion
The Cadillac Three
The Highwomen
New Female Artist of the Year
Ingrid Andress
Tenille Arts
Gabby Barrett
Mickey Guyton
Caylee Hammack
New Male Artist of the Year
Jimmie Allen
Travis Denning
Hardy
Cody Johnson
Parker McCollum
Album of the Year
Born Here Live Here Die Here, Luke Bryan
Mixtape Vol. 1, Kane Brown
Never Will, Ashley McBryde
Skeletons, Brothers Osborne
Starting Over, Chris Stapleton
Single of the Year
“Bluebird,” Miranda Lambert
“I Hope,” Gabby Barrett
“I Hope You’re Happy Now,” Carly Pearce and Lee Brice
“More Hearts Than Mine,” Ingrid Andress
“The Bones,” Maren Morris
Song of the Year
“Bluebird,” Luke Dick, Miranda Lambert, Natalie Hemby
“One Night Standards,” Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford, Shane McAnally
“Some People Do,” Jesse Frasure, Matt Ramsey, Thomas Rhett, Shane McAnally
“Starting Over,” Chris Stapleton, Mike Henderson
“The Bones,” Jimmy Robbins, Maren Morris, Laura Veltz
Video of the Year
“Better Than We Found It,” Maren Morris
“Bluebird,” Miranda Lambert
“Gone,” Dierks Bentley
“Hallelujah,” Carrie Underwood and John Legend
“Worldwide Beautiful,” Kane Brown
Songwriter of the Year
Ashley Gorley
Michael Hardy
Hillary Lindsey
Shane McAnally
Josh Osborne
Music Event of the Year
“Be A Light,” Thomas Rhett f/Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott, Chris Tomlin, Keith Urban
“Does To Me,” Luke Combs f/Eric Church
“I Hope You’re Happy Now,” Carly Pearce and Lee Brice
“Nobody But You,” Blake Shelton f/Gwen Stefani
“One Beer,” Hardy f/Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson
“One Too Many,” Keith Urban f/P!nk
Chris Stapleton (theme of Starting Over album) OC: …as humans. :54
“I’ve never really looked at records necessarily as having a theme. I’ve never made a record in that kind of a constraint necessarily. And there are a lot of great records that have this theme and this overlying thread that kind of runs through them. Maybe the thread for me is just I’m singing. I wrote a bulk of the songs. It’s the same guys playing all the songs. If there’s a theme – if there’s a theme it’s hopefully there’s a theme of truth somewhere in it. And what I mean by that is hopefully we’re conveying in the songs some experiences that feel real and hopefully people can find themselves in those songs and in the album. And for me if I’m looking for a theme it’s that kind of, I don’t know, that thing that binds us all together as humans.”
Eric Church (CMA 2020) 1 OC: …next year or two. :31
“There’s not really been winners this year. I mean, nobody’s played. Nobody’s done the things we normally do. It’s been a year, to me, about losses. It’s about loss of life. It’s about loss of education for your kids. It’s about loss of time playing. It’s been a year of managing those losses. But I really meant what I said (during my acceptance speech) that we were in a room together as country music, and that’s not happened this year. So, I think that that was a win for country music, and I think it was a win for where we’re gonna go in the next year or two.”
Luke Bryan (fan expectations for BHLHDH) OC: …something for everybody. :37
“I think fans can expect a little something of everything. They can expect a love song, a dancing song; obviously, ‘One Margarita’ being a big ole fun summer drinking song. And I think we have songs that will make you cry, touch your emotions, and I think, like I said there are songs that you can fall in love to out there. And there are songs that talk about the true meaning of life when you think about a song like ‘For a Boat,’ and you got a father teaching his son about the important things in life. So, I’m just proud of the way the album come together, and I feel like there’s something for everybody.”
Dierks Bentley (Gone) 2 OC: …would enjoy it too. :18
“You know, the song, ‘cause I didn’t write it I can only brag on it, is just really well-written. It’s catchy, it’s fun. It’s metaphorical about what’s happening right now. It reminds me a little bit of some stuff we’ve had out in the past, but it feels like new territory in other ways and I don’t know, I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed singing it and I enjoyed playing it, and I wanted to put it out there and I thought our fans would enjoy it too.”
Keith Urban (P!NK duet) OC: …it together. :29
“This song was written as a duet, and I sent the song to her and luckily she loved it. I loved the song and I was really hoping she would love it, because she’s truly one of the great singers of our generation. So, to hear her voice on this song was phenomenal. We had such a great time getting to do that. I wish we could’ve done it in the same space, but you know with the situation we’re in, of course, we couldn’t do that. So, she recorded her vocal at her house and I did mine at my house, and we put it together.”
Carrie Underwood (Hallelujah) OC: …cool collaboration. :37
“’Hallelujah’ is a song that touches on many different topics and feelings. It’s a love song, it’s a Christmas song, it’s a celebrating the time of year song. It’s you know, still wanting that joyfulness – it was written by John Legend and Toby Gad. When I listened to it, it had John’s voice on it, and it’s just beautiful. I knew I wanted to sing it – we asked if John, you might want to sing it with me. The perfect song, the perfect person, John Legend sounds amazing on it and I was like wow, I can’t believe that this just all came together like this, and just kind of a really cool collaboration.”
Parker McCollum (1st ACM Nomination) OC: …So grateful. :36
“What does it mean to be nominated for an ACM Award? I can’t even explain it. I’ve watched these awards shows from the time I can remember listening to country music or watching television. It’s been my whole life. And so to be nominated for an ACM, something like New Male Artist of the Year – an absolute honor and a dream come true and so cool to see how proud my family is of me getting nominated for something like this. It’s just, there are no words, man. So grateful.”
