How the CMA Blew the Male Vocalist Category This Year – Brian’s Blog

The nominees for the upcoming CMA awards came out yesterday. This is a big day for artists, record labels and radio. We have been fortunate enough to win a couple of these and have been nominated many times and know how special it feels to make that list.

Whenever nominees are announced there are always some you agree with and some that you don't. This year there is a major shock in the Male Vocalist category. I am all for coloring outside of the lines but the body of the CMA really threw me for a loop yesterday. Chris Stapleton was nominated for male vocalist of the year. Who you ask? Good question for most fans. Chris is very talented artist and songwriter who is favorite among critics and industry people but the general public has no idea who he is. I have his album 'Traveler'. It is good but not something I care to hear over and over. It is a good piece of art but he certainly does not deserve to be nominated for the award when others had such successful years.

Here are a few guys who were NOT nominated. Tim McGraw who had one of the best years of his career was not nominated. Billy Currington and Cole Swindell both had multiple number one hits but were overlooked. Sam Hunt blew up the charts with 3 number ones but was not on the list. Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban were all missing from the list as was Brett Eldredge who was on fire this year. I am all for giving credit where credit is due but come on members of the CMA, you got this one wrong.

The nominees who did make it were Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton and Eric Church.