Stapleton and Church each earned five Academy of Country Music Awards nominations, announced Monday morning.
Chris Stapleton’s banner year continues. Virtually unknown outside of Nashville’s Music Row this time last year despite a long tenure in the industry, the soulful singer emerged as a star last fall when he won three Country Music Assn. Awards and performed on that show with Justin Timberlake. He then went on to land four Grammy nominations. Now, Stapleton shares the spotlight with fellow country music renegade Eric Church, with each artist earning five Academy of Country Music Awards nominations, announced Monday morning.
Little Big Town received four mentions, but an additional nom for group member Karen Fairchild puts them in the company of Church and Stapleton on the leaderboard. Chris Young and newcomer Cam earned four noms apiece, while Chris Janson, Miranda Lambert and Thomas Rhett scored three each. Both Cam and Janson are first-time ACM nominees.
Stapleton’s nominations include mentions in both the male vocalist and new male vocalist categories. He also landed a vocal event nomination for “Hangover Tonight,” a collaboration with Gary Allan, plus nominations as both artist and producer in the album of the year category for Traveller. These mark Stapleton’s first nominations as an artist. He was previously nominated as a songwriter in 2014 for “Drink a Beer,” recorded by Luke Bryan (with Stapleton on background vocals).
Church’s nominations include his first in the entertainer of the year category and his third for male vocalist of the year.
Little Big Town racked up its 10th nom in the vocal group of the year category. The foursome also is represented twice this year in the vocal event category, once for the full band’s collaboration with Lambert on “Smokin’ and Drinkin’” and again for Fairchild’s duet with Bryan on his current single, “Home Alone Tonight.”
Cam earned one nomination for new female vocalist, and three more for her single “Burning House,” including credits as both artist and producer on the track. In a clear sign of how challenging the playing field continues to be for female singers in the country format, only four women qualified for the ballot in the new female vocalist category, when all other categories included five nominees. Joining Cam in that category are Kelsea Ballerini (who is also nominated in the female vocalist category), Mickey Guyton and RaeLynn.
Like Cam and Janson, Ballerini, Guyton and RaeLynn are all first-time ACM nominees, as are Chase Rice and the bands Old Dominion, A Thousand Horses and Parmalee.
Young’s new batch of nominations include his first career recognition in the album of the year category — where he earned mentions as both artist and producer on I’m Comin’ Over — and two more as artist and producer on the title track in the single record category. He earned just one previous ACM nomination in 2011, but a win this year would be his first.
Lambert’s nominations include her fifth in the entertainer of the year category, and her10th consecutive nom in the female vocalist field, which she has won six times. Rhett, meanwhile, scored his first nomination in the Album category for his sophomore set,Tangled Up.
Some of the nominations were shared live Monday on CBS This Morning by Dierks Bentley, and the rest were announced on ETOnline.com. Winners will be revealed April 3 during the telecast of the 51st ACM Awards, broadcast from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas beginning at 8 p.m. ET (tape-delayed PT) on CBS. Bryan will serve as the show’s co-host for the fourth time, joined by first-timer Bentley, who succeeds Blake Shelton in the role. Both Bryan and Bentley scored two noms this year.
In one procedural change, nominees and winners in the entertainer and three newcomer categories (new male vocalist, new female vocalist and new vocal duo or group) revert to being chosen exclusively by the ACM’s professional membership after years of incorporating fan votes.
Following is a list of the nominees revealed so far. Several other categories, including song of the year, will be announced at a later date.
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