The 2018 Academy of Country Music Awards will be handed out on Sunday night, April 15, and you can expect Miranda Lambert to make history — again. She’s the front-runner to win Female Vocalist of the Year. It would be her ninth consecutive victory in the category after winning from 2010-2017, and that would be an unprecedented feat.
Lambert first made history in 2016 when she won for the seventh time. That tied her for the most victories in the category, and it set a new record for the most consecutive victories. Previously Reba McEntire won that many between 1985 and 1995, but her victories were nonconsecutive. Then Lambert stood alone in 2017 when she prevailed for the eighth time. And now, according to the combined forecasts of hundreds of Gold Derby users, Lambert gets leading odds of 9/10 to win yet again. That includes support from three out of four Editors who cover awards year-round for Gold Derby, 16 of our Top 24 Users who got the highest scores predicting last year’s ACMs and 16 of our All-Star Top 24 who got the highest scores when you combine the last two years’ predictions.
But is she a sure thing? She has three other nominations this year — Song of the Year as artist and writer for “Tin Man,” and Video of the Year for “We Should Be Friends” — but she’s not the only contender with four total bids. She’s up against up-and-comer Maren Morris, who won New Female Vocalist of the Year at last year’s event and now gets 3/1 odds of winning the Female Vocalist race. She’s also nominated three times for Vocal Event of the Year: as an artist for “Craving You” with Thomas Rhett and as an artist and producer for “Dear Hate” with Vince Gill. In just two years Morris has amassed 10 ACM nominations, so if the academy is looking to pass the baton, she may be their ideal choice. She’s backed by one of our Editors, five of our Top Users and five of our All-Stars.
Kelsea Ballerini follows with 5/1 odds based on support from two of our Top Users and two All-Stars. We may also be underestimating Carrie Underwood, who has won this award three times (2007-2009) but trails in our predictions with fourth-place odds of 6/1. And rounding out the category with 13/2 odds is the aforementioned McEntire, who is also hosting the ACMs ceremony and thus may have even more goodwill from voters.
Be sure to make your ACM predictions so that Hollywood insiders can see this year’s contenders are faring in our ACM odds. You can keep changing your predictions until winners are announced. And join the discussion on this and more taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our music forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
