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CMA Awards Nominees Announced, Chris Stapleton Leads With 5

By Reggie Ijeoma
Published on: 04:35 PST, Aug 28, 2018

The nominations for the 2018 CMA Awards were announced this morning during a live broadcast of Good Morning America from Times Square. People Magazine reports that country music acts Luke Bryan, Dan + Shay, and Sugarland revealed the names of the nominees.

Chris Stapleton racked up five nominations this year following the release of his album, From A Room: Volume 2, including Entertainer of the Year, Single of the Year, and Record of the Year.

Stapleton has some stiff competition from fellow nominees Jason Aldean and Keith Urban for Entertainer of the Year. Aldean and Urban received three nominations each for this year’s Awards.

E! News reports that Dan Huff follows right behind Stapleton for highest number of nominations for this year’s CMA Awards. Huff received four nominations, including Musician of the Year. Nine artists tied for three nominations each, including Jason Alden, Dierks Bentley, Dan +Shay, Florida Georgia Line, Chris Janson, Miranda Lambert, Midland, Thomas Rhett, and Keith Urban.

Last year’s CMA nominations stirred up controversy due to several high-profile snubs in the Entertainer of the Year category. As previously reported by Inquisitr, fans of Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert were livid as neither of the stars received nominations for the category. Social media reactions were harsh, with many accusing the CMA Awards of being male-dominated.

This year, the nominees for the Entertainer of the Year category are also all men. The nominees are Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Chris Stapleton, and Keith Urban. Reactions on Twitter to the 2018 nominees echo many of the sentiments about last year’s all-male nominations for the prestigious category.

User @bkosok tweeted, “Still NO females or even groups in the Entertainer of the Year category, URGH come on world! #CMAawards Let’s start recognizing some great groups and females like @littlebigtown and @mirandalambert.”

Another user @yeceniaa__ wrote, “Can we just boycott the #CMAawards until they get their ish together and FINALLY put some females up on the nominations for entertainer of the year??”

Carrie Underwood received two nominations for the 2018 CMA Awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year and Music Video of the Year for “Cry Pretty.” The Female Vocalist of the Year category has some serious talents representing this year, with nominations also going to Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris, and Kacey Musgraves.

Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley will co-host this year’s show, teaming up for their 11th year as hosts.

The 2018 CMA Awards will broadcast live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, airing November 14 at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on ABC.

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