Brothers Osborne, Luke Combs, Maren Morris, Miranda Lambert and the Zac Brown Band are tied for the most nominations each, three, for this year’s CMT Music Awards, set to air live on the country music network June 5.
The list of artists with two nods in the network’s eight categories is an exceptionally long one: Brandi Carlile, Carrie Underwood, Cole Swindell, Dan + Shay, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Julia Michaels, Kacey Musgraves, Kane Brown, Keith Urban, Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Sugarland and Taylor Swift.
The number of non-country artists up for CMTs is plentiful — starting with Swift, who self-deported from the genre some years back, but is up for collaborative video of the year and duo of the year for appearing with Sugarland in “Babe,” which she wrote and gave to the Nashville duo to record before making her video cameo.
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Because there is a CMT Performance of the Year award specifically given out to a collaboration that appeared on-air in either a “CMT Crossroads Special” or “CMT Artists of the Year,” every one of those six nominations includes a star from outside the genre. Those include Boyz II Men, Leon Bridges, Brandi Carlile, Meghan Trainor, Gladys Knight and Shawn Mendes.
Yet CMT seems to be ready to include Carlile as a core country artist now, as she is also nomination for female video of the year for “The Joke,” a song that was not promoted in the country format.
For the overstuffed video of the year category, which includes a whopping 14 nominees — seemingly almost every major name in country right now — the winnowing down will occur later. Final nominations will be announced the week of the show, and home viewers will get to determine the winner via social media during the telecast. But voting in all the categories is already open to fans at vote.cmt.com.
It might seem odd that a star as big as Kacey Musgraves is right now only got two nominations. But video of the year and female video of the year were the only two she was eligible for, since she didn’t take part in any collaborative videos or CMT performances. The same goes for Dan + Shay and other acts that would rack up bigger numbers at the CMAs or ACMs.
In what could read as a sign that the past year’s crop of newcomers was not an especially strong field, none of the seven nominees for breakthrough video — the award given to freshmen — was nominated in any other category. The most critically acclaimed of the newcomer, Ashley McBryde, who was recently nominated in the female artist categories at the ACMs and Grammys and even picked up a Daytime Emmys nomination, didn’t make it in among the more established artists in the female video category here.
Little Big Town will host the show for a second year, to be broadcast from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Although LBT was off-cycle for group videos this year, the band’s Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman are nominated alongside the R&B great Knight for their “2018 CMT Artists of the Year” medley of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”
A full list of nominees:
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
- Carrie Underwood – “Cry Pretty”
- Chris Janson – “Drunk Girl”
- Cole Swindell – “Break Up in the End”
- Dan + Shay – “Speechless”
- Dierks Bentley feat. Brothers Osborne – “Burning Man”
- Eric Church – “Desperate Man”
- Florida Georgia Line – “Simple”
- Kacey Musgraves – “Rainbow”
- Kane Brown – “Good as You”
- Keith Urban feat. Julia Michaels – “Coming Home”
- Kelsea Ballerini – “Miss Me More”
- Luke Combs – “She Got the Best of Me”
- Maren Morris – “GIRL”
- Zac Brown Band –“Someone I Used To Know”
MALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
- Cole Swindell – “Break Up in the End”
- Eric Church – “Desperate Man”
- Jason Aldean feat. Miranda Lambert – “Drowns The Whiskey”
- Kane Brown – “Lose It”
- Kenny Chesney – “Get Along”
- Luke Bryan – “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset”
- Thomas Rhett – “Life Changes”
FEMALE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
- Brandi Carlile – “The Joke”
- Carly Pearce – “Closer To You”
- Carrie Underwood – “Love Wins”
- Kacey Musgraves – “Space Cowboy”
- Kelsea Ballerini – “Miss Me More”
- Maren Morris – “GIRL”
- Miranda Lambert – “Keeper of the Flame”
DUO VIDEO OF THE YEAR
- Brothers Osborne – “I Don’t Remember Me (Before You)”
- Dan + Shay – “Speechless”
- Florida Georgia Line – “Simple”
- LOCASH – “Feels Like A Party”
- Maddie & Tae – “Friends Don’t”
- Sugarland feat. Taylor Swift – “Babe”
GROUP VIDEO OF THE YEAR
- Eli Young Band – “Love Ain’t”
- LANCO – “Born to Love You”
- Little Big Town – “Summer Fever”
- Midland – “Burn Out”
- Old Dominion – “Hotel Key”
- Zac Brown Band – “Someone I Used To Know”
BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO OF THE YEAR
- Ashley McBryde – “Girl Goin’ Nowhere (At Marathon Music Works)”
- Jimmie Allen – “Best Shot”
- Jordan Davis – “Take It From Me”
- Mitchell Tenpenny – “Drunk Me”
- Morgan Wallen – “Whiskey Glasses”
- Runaway June – “Buy My Own Drinks”
- Tenille Townes – “Somebody’s Daughter”
COLLABORATIVE VIDEO OF THE YEAR
- Brantley Gilbert and Lindsay Ell – “What Happens In A Small Town”
- Darius Rucker feat. Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Charles Kelley – “Straight To Hell”
- Dierks Bentley feat. Brothers Osborne – “Burning Man”
- Jason Aldean feat. Miranda Lambert – “Drowns The Whiskey”
- Keith Urban feat. Julia Michaels – “Coming Home”
- Sugarland feat. Taylor Swift – “Babe”
CMT PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
- Boyz II Men and Brett Young – “Motownphilly (From CMT Crossroads)”
- Luke Combs and Leon Bridges – “Beautiful Crazy (From CMT Crossroads)”
- Maren Morris and Brandi Carlile – “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (From 2018 CMT Artists of the Year)”
- Brett Eldredge and Meghan Trainor – “Let You Be Right (From CMT Crossroads)”
- Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman and Gladys Knight – “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” (From 2018 CMT Artists of the Year)
- Zac Brown Band and Shawn Mendes – “Keep Me In Mind (From CMT Crossroads)”