NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� He had some help: tops the 2024 Country Music Association Awards nominations with seven.
For a third year in a row, Wallen is up for both the top prize 鈥� entertainer of the year 鈥� and the male vocalist categories.
Rounding out the entertainer of the year categories are Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Chris Stapleton and
Post Malone's massive radio hit, which features Wallen, is the main reason why the country singer leads the pack this year. It is up for single, song, musical event and music video of the year. His last nomination is a second one in the musical event category, for his collaboration with Eric Church, 鈥淢an Made a Bar.鈥�
Single of the year is awarded to the artist, producer and mix engineers; song of the year is given to the songwriters.
Ahead of the nominations announcement, some fans speculated that Beyonc茅, whose landmark country-and-then-some reclamation was released during the eligibility window, could receive a nomination at the 2024 CMAs. She did not.
Earlier this year, on the Billboard country albums chart, making her the first Black woman to top the chart since its 1964 inception.
The album was five years in the making, a direct result of what Beyonc茅 has called 鈥渁n experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed 鈥� and it was very clear that I wasn鈥檛,鈥� most likely a reference to that resulted in racist backlash.
The CMA Awards are nominated and voted on by members of the Country Music Association, which includes music executives, artists, publicists, songwriters and other industry professionals.
Wallen is followed by both Cody Johnson, who is also nominated in the male vocalist category for the third year in a row, and 7-time male vocalist of the year winner, Stapleton.
Stapleton and Johnson have five nominations each.
But Stapleton could take home seven trophies, should he sweep his categories.
Stapleton is both an artist and producer on 鈥淲hite Horse,鈥� up for single of the year, and 鈥淗igher,鈥� up for album of the year.
At the CMAs, production credits are not counted as separate nominations, although they are factored into trophy counts.
and Wilson, last year's entertainer of the year winner, are tied with four nominations. All of Malone's nominations are for 鈥淚 Had Some Help.鈥�
Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome and Hoskins are tied with three nominations for their work as producers and co-writers on 鈥淚 Had Some Help.鈥�
Jelly Roll, Combs, Kacey Musgraves and also boast three nods each. The latter three could take home four trophies: Combs is both artist and producer on 鈥淔athers & Sons,鈥� up for album of the year. The same is true for Musgraves' album 鈥淒eeper Well.鈥�
And Moroney is both artist and director of her nominated music video, 鈥淚'm Not Pretty.鈥�
The CMA Awards will air on Nov. 20 on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern. It can be streamed the next day on Hulu.
Maria Sherman, The Associated Press
