The Academy of Country Music Awards is poised to honor several familiar faces for country music fans. Miranda Lambert and Tim McGraw earned seven nominations, while Keith Urban earned six. Blake Shelton, Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan could also have great nights when the awards are handed out.
The nominees for the top prize, Entertainer of the Year, are Bryan, Lambert, Shelton, Swift and George Strait. Coincidentally, Bryan and Shelton are co-hosting the awards. Shelton will also be competing against his wife, Lambert.
Shelton and Bryan will be competing against each other in the Male Vocalist category as well. Jason Aldean, Urban and Lee Brice round out that category.
The Female Vocalist nominees are Lambert, Swift, Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves and Sheryl Crow.
Florida Georgia Line was nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year and will compete with Love and Theft, Thompson Square, Dan + Shay and Big & Rich. Little Big Town, Lady Antebellum, Eli Young Band, The Band Perry and Zac Brown Band were nominated for Vocal Group.
The Album of the Year category is almost all men this year, with Shelton’s Based on a True Story...; Bryan’s Crash My Party; Florida Georgia Line’s Here’s To The Good Times; and McCraw’s Two Lanes of Freedom earning nods. Musgraves is the only woman in the category, as her Same Trailer Different Park was nominated.
In the Single Record of the Year category, the nominees are Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise”; McGraw’s “Highway Don’t Care” (with Swift & Urban); Brice’s “I Drive Your Truck”; Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart:l and “Wagon Wheel” by Darius Rucker with Lady Antebellum.
The last major category is Song of the Year, which goes to the songwriters. The nominees in that category are Gary Allan’s “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)”; Brice’s “I Drive Your Truck”; Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart”; and Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel.”
The ACM Awards are handed out on April 6 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. It airs on CBS and is produced by Dick Clark Productions.
image: CBS