The nominations for this year’s CMT MUSIC AWARDS were announced on Wednesday (September 23rd), and several UMG Nashville artists were among the nominees.
Sam Hunt picked up three nods, including Video of the Year (“Hard To Forget”); Male Video of the Year (“Hard To Forget”) and CMT Performance of the Year (“Fancy” from CMT Artists of the Year show).
Carrie Underwood, who reigns as the most awarded artist in CMT Music Awards history with 20 wins, is up for two awards including Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year for “Drinking Alone;” and Little Big Town is also up for a pair of awards including Video of the Year (“Sugar Coat”) and Group Video of the Year (“Wine, Beer, Whiskey”).
“Breakthrough Video of the Year” nominees include Caylee Hammack (“Family Tree”) and Travis Denning (“After a Few”).
The finalists for “Video of the Year” will be announced on October 12; fans will be able to vote throughout the week until October 16 to determine the winner.
Fan voting begins today at vote.cmt.com and continues until 12PM ET/11 AM CT on Monday, October 12. The top five “Video of the Year” finalists will be revealed at that time.
The finalists for “Video of the Year” will be announced on October 12; fans will be able to vote throughout the week until October 16 to determine the winner.
The nominees for the “2020 CMT Music Awards” are:
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Best video of the year; awarded to the artist (male, female, group/duo or collaboration) and the video director. Final nominees announced on 10/12, with final voting held until 10/16 and announced in-show.
- Ashley McBryde – “One Night Standards”
- Blanco Brown – “The Git Up”
- Carrie Underwood – “Drinking Alone”
- Dan + Shay – “I Should Probably Go To Bed”
- Keith Urban – “Polaroid”
- Kelsea Ballerini – “homecoming queen?”
- Little Big Town – “Sugar Coat”
- Luke Combs – “Beer Never Broke My Heart”
- Miranda Lambert – “Bluebird”
- Old Dominion – “Some People Do”
- Sam Hunt – “Hard To Forget”
- Tanya Tucker – “Bring My Flowers Now”
- The Chicks -“Gaslighter”
- Thomas Rhett – “Remember You Young”
FEMALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Best video by a female artist; awarded to the artist
- Ashley McBryde – “One Night Standards”
- Carrie Underwood – “Drinking Alone”
- Gabby Barrett – “I Hope”
- Kelsea Ballerini – “homecoming queen?”
- Maren Morris – “The Bones”
- Miranda Lambert – “Bluebird”
MALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Best video by a male artist; awarded to the artist
- Jason Aldean – “Got What I Got”
- Luke Bryan – “One Margarita”
- Luke Combs – “Even Though I’m Leaving”
- Morgan Wallen – “Chasin’ You (Dream Video)”
- Sam Hunt – “Hard To Forget”
- Thomas Rhett – “Remember You Young”
GROUP VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Best video by a group; awarded to the artists
- Lady A – “Champagne Night”
- Little Big Town – “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”
- Midland – “Cheatin’ Songs (Live From the Palomino)”
- Old Dominion – “One Man Band”
- The Chicks – “Gaslighter”
- The Highwomen – “Crowded Table”
DUO VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Best video by a duo; awarded to the artists
- Brothers Osborne – “All Night (Studio Performance)”
- Dan + Shay – “I Should Probably Go To Bed”
- Florida Georgia Line – “Blessings”
- LOCASH – “One Big Country Song”
- Maddie & Tae – “Die From A Broken Heart”
BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Best video from an artist’s major breakthrough album; awarded to the artist (male, female or group/duo)
- Blanco Brown – “The Git Up”
- Caylee Hammack – “Family Tree”
- Gabby Barrett – “I Hope”
- Ingrid Andress – “More Hearts Than Mine”
- Riley Green – “I Wish Grandpas Never Died”
- Travis Denning – “After a Few”
COLLABORATIVE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Best video from a collaboration; awarded to the artists
- Blake Shelton with Gwen Stefani – “Nobody But You”
- Carly Pearce and Lee Brice – “I Hope You’re Happy Now”
- Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber – “10,000 Hours”
- Kane Brown featuring Nelly – “Cool Again”
- Marshmello and Kane Brown – “One Thing Right”
- Thomas Rhett featuring Jon Pardi – “Beer Can’t Fix”
CMT PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Musical performance on a television show, series or variety special on CMT; awarded to the artist (individual, group or duo)
- From CMT Artists of the Year: Ashley McBryde – “One Night Standards”
- From CMT Crossroads: Brooks & Dunn and Luke Combs – “Brand New Man”
- From CMT Artists of the Year: Chris Young – “Drowning”
- From CMT Crossroads: Halsey and Kelsea Ballerini – “Graveyard”
- From CMT Artists of the Year: Sam Hunt – “Fancy”
- From CMT Crossroads: Sheryl Crow and Chris Stapleton – “Tell Me When It’s Over”
Audio / MADDIE & TAE TALK ABOUT THE EMOTIONS THAT TOOK PLACE WHILE FILMING THE VIDEO FOR THEIR LATEST SONG, “DIE FROM A BROKEN HEART.”
DownloadMaddie & Tae (DFABH video emotions) OC: (Tae) …feel something. :49
MADDIE: “My role in this is kind of being the narrator and watching my best friend go through kind of like how this inspiration started for this song. So, we just both really, really dug into the like just lowest, lowest parts of our (TAE: “Heartache.”). It was tricky, ‘cause I was like I have to be really, really emotional and I feel bad all the camera guys, especially with Tae’s scenes, they’re just like, you could see their eyes welling up watching her and watching me crying.” TAE: “My parents just happened to be in town when we were shooting, so I was like, ‘When else are you gonna be in town when we’re making music videos, so you have to come,’ cause they’ve never seen it. They came and one specific scene – I’m not gonna say what it is – but it made both of my parents cry. And I walked out and my mom had a red nose and my dad’s like, ‘I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t crying.’ (MADDIE: “Awwwwww.”) And I was like, ‘Oh no.’ Well, if it makes my parents cry, hopefully it’ll makes people feel something.”
Audio / CAYLEE HAMMACK TALKS ABOUT HAVING SOME OF HER FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS FEATURED IN THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR “FAMILY TREE.”
DownloadCaylee Hammack (Family Tree video) OC: …world to me. :37
“If you’ve ever wrangled monkeys, that’s pretty much the gist of getting ‘Family Tree’ together because I brought in a bunch of my family members, I brought a bunch of my friends, I brought my dog in, we had a little cast because some of the people couldn’t come in to play the roles. It was a wild day on set, but I think it all came together. Being able to bring my family in that video means the world to me, because ‘Family Tree’ is the introductory course into my music, you know? It’s the appetizer of my tunes, and being able to start that off very strong with all of my family surrounding me, means the world to me.”
Audio / TRAVIS DENNING TALKS ABOUT THE STORY LINE OF HIS MUSIC VIDEO FOR "AFTER A FEW."
DownloadTravis Denning (AAF video) OC: …act in it. :50
“One thing I loved about the treatment for the After a Few music video is Justin Clough, who directed it, just had this great idea of the similarities between the relationship and taking a gamble on that and actually taking a gamble on a poker game. And so, we decided to kind of have this story line of me and this girl that I just couldn’t help but go back to and every drink was a gamble into falling back in her arms. And then this other side where I’m going up playing poker and getting more confident and winning money and then finally, everything comes to a T with going all in on this hand, and all of a sudden, I’m all in with her. I just thought it was so cool, and it was just great how the cinematic aspect completely mirrored one another. It was fun to act in it.”
Audio / CARRIE UNDERWOOD TALKS ABOUT “DRINKING ALONE,” WHICH SHE CO-WROTE WITH BRETT JAMES AND DAVID GARCIA.
DownloadCarrie Underwood (Drinking Alone) OC: …right now. 1:07
“I had the title, and we just kind of started what does this mean. This is another one that I feel like the title could have gone to a very like sad emotional place, but me being me I still wanted to have that strong kind of character in there. So, I love the fact that this is a breakup song. ‘I’m here at the bar drinking my pain away. You and me can hang out. Why should we both be lamenting over lost love separately? We’re both here doing the same thing. Let’s just do that together.’ I love that the character, I was like I don’t want her like going home with him. I don’t want any of that. I just want it to be like, ‘Okay we’ll just hang out. We’ll drink. We’ll maybe share a corner booth kiss.’ But it’s just more about that night and that moment and that Band-Aid and then going your separate ways. ‘Like this isn’t a thing. I’m not looking to start a new relationship. I’m out of this one. Let’s just let whatever this is be what this is right now.’”
Audio / LUKE BRYAN TALKS ABOUT HIS MULTI-WEEK NO. 1 SONG, "ONE MARGARITA."
DownloadLuke Bryan (One Margarita) OC: …margarita. :44
“’One Margarita’ is like the perfect summertime anthem party song, get on your boat, have a great time. The first time I heard it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s like the catchiest, most fun party song I’ve heard in a long time.’ Sop, we knew we had something special with the song. We get it recorded, and I’m like, ‘Hey! We’ve got Crash My Playa. What better place to put a song called ‘One Margarita’ out and then do the video?’ So, we go to Crash My Playa and we just start shooting it down there. And the video just feels fun. It came together amazing, and it gives fans a little glimpse of what Crash My Playa is if they’ve never been, and hey-it makes you want to have a margarita.”
