2023 CMA Awards Nominations: Snubs & Surprises

Last year, Lainey Wilson earned her very first CMA Awards nominations — and her first wins, for new artist of the year and female vocalist of the year. This year, the Louisiana singer-songwriter’s mighty career surge — which includes her hit single “Heart Like a Truck,” her acclaimed album Bell Bottom Country and charting collabs with HARDY and Jelly Roll — propels her to the CMA Awards ceremony’s most prestigious category, with a nomination for entertainer of the year.

That nomination is one of nine total nods Wilson picked up leading into this year’s ceremony. She also has nominations in the single of the year, album of the year and female vocalist of the year categories, among others.

Wilson is the first artist to win the CMA Award for new artist of the year one year and receive an entertainer of the year nomination the next since Chris Stapleton won the rookie honor in 2015 and was up for the top prize in 2016. (For the record, one artist went even faster. Ricky Skaggs won the horizon award — the forerunner to new artist of the year — in 1982 and was nominated for entertainer of the year that same year).

Zach Bryan currently resides atop both the Billboard 200 (with his new, self-titled project) and the Hot 100 (thanks to “I Remember Everything” with Kacey Musgraves). Although those impressive stats come after the eligibility period for which this year’s CMA Awards closed, Bryan already had registered a stellar year: The Warner Records/Belting Broncos artist’s breakthrough single, “Something in the Orange” peaked in the top 10 on the Hot 100, and spent six weeks at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs earlier this year, while its parent album has been a mainstay in the top 40 of the Billboard 200. However, his sole CMA Award nomination this year is in the new artist of the year category. Given the strength of his music, one would have expected to also see him in single/song and male artist categories.

Parmalee had Billboard’s No. 1 Country Airplay Song of 2022 with “Take My Name” and has been working in the trenches for two decades. The four-man North Carolina group may not have the consistency of some of the other acts nominated in the vocal group of the year, but it felt like this was finally their year to nab a nom.

As an artist, Charlie Worsham has released two albums and is gearing up for his next one, Compadres. As a musician, his credits include playing on albums by Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves, Wilson, Combs, Dierks Bentley, Carrie Underwood, Riley Green, Joshua Hedley and more. That makes his first-ever CMA Award nomination, in the musician of the year category, extra sweet.

Country music is going through a resurgence on the Billboard charts and there are a plethora of new artists breaking through. Bailey Zimmerman had the kind of year that new artists dream of with two No. 1s on the Country Airplay chart and opening for Morgan Wallen, yet he didn’t make the final cut here. Sometimes there’s a bit of a lag—Parker McCollum, who is nominated this year, had his first No. 1 in 2020, so Zimmerman may still get his nod next year.

Jordan Davis has really come into his own after winning song of the year at last year’s CMA Awards for “Buy Dirt” (with Luke Bryan) and following up with two huge hits, “What My World Spins Around” and “Next Thing You Know” — but it still wasn’t quite enough for him to get a slot in the very competitive male vocalist of the year category. However, no need to feel too sorry for him: He still landed three other nominations, all for “Next Thing You Know,” for single, song and music video of the year.

Though it’s hardly a shock that this supremely talented duo would score a nomination for vocal duo of the year, they certainly have a lower mainstream profile than their competitors in the category: Brooks & Dunn, Brothers Osborne, Dan + Shay and Maddie & Tae. Still, as anyone who has heard the illustrious vocal intertwining of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter could attest, the nomination — the duo’s first at the CMA Awards — is well-deserved.

Kane Brown has earned a slate of Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 hits over the past year, including “Like I Love Country Music” and “Thank God,” his duet with his wife Katelyn Brown. His Blessed & Free Tour also made stops at all 29 NBA basketball arenas in 2021 and 2022, while September 2022-issued album Different Man debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard country albums chart. Though “Thank God” did earn a nod for musical event of the year, Brown was not included in bigger categories, including male vocalist of the year and entertainer of the year.

Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” spent 16 nonconsecutive weeks atop Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100, becoming his first song to top that chart. “Last Night” also spent 25 weeks top the Hot Country Songs chart this year, and topped Billboard’s Songs of the Summer rankings. Yet the song earned no CMA nods for either single or song of the year. While this smash hit was not itself honored, Wallen does make a showing in three of the top categories: entertainer of the year, male vocalist of the year and album of the year (for his One Thing at a Time).

Songwriter Chase McGill earns his first CMA Award nomination this year, as a songwriter on Jordan Davis’ “Next Thing You Know.” McGill was previously honored with a CMA Triple Play Award in March, for his work writing Luke Bryan’s “Waves,” the Cole Swindell/Wilson duet “Never Say Never,” and Wallen’s “Don’t Think Jesus.”

Given the list of hit songs McGill has previously written, which also includes Kane Brown’s “Lose It,” Justin Moore’s “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home” and Luke Bryan’s “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset,” it comes as a surprise that this marks McGill’s first nomination, leading into the official CMA Awards ceremony.