Chris Stapleton leads the 2018 Country Music Association Award nominations with five bids including Entertainer of the Year, where he’s joined by Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban. They’re all male solo artists, which is a common occurrence at the CMA Awards, so much so that I also addressed the issue last year, and the year before that too: according to the CMAs, women just aren’t entertaining.
This year women are underrepresented across the CMA ballot. There is only one woman nominated for Album of the Year (Kacey Musgraves for “Golden Hour,” one of the most acclaimed albums of the year in any genre). There’s only one woman up for Single of the Year (Bebe Rexha for “Meant to Be” with Florida Georgia Line). All of the nominees for Song of the Year are by male artists and only one of them has a woman among its songwriters (Nicolle Galyon for Dan and Shay‘s “Tequila”). And just one woman contends for New Artist of the Year (Lauren Alaina).
Miranda Lambert is the only woman this year with three or more nominations, compared to 10 male acts who have that many. And the only category where women aren’t in the minority is the only category they have to themselves: Female Vocalist of the Year.
Only seven female acts have ever won Entertainer of the Year in more than a half-century of the CMA Awards: Loretta Lynn (1972), Dolly Parton (1978), Barbara Mandrell (1980-1981), Reba McEntire (1986), Shania Twain (1999), Dixie Chicks (2000), and Taylor Swift (2009, 2011). Mandrell and Swift are the only women to have won twice. And the Dixie Chicks and Swift are the only female winners so far in the 21st century. Since 2000 there have been 95 nominations for Entertainer of the Year, but only 12 of those went to female artists, including the mixed-gender group Lady Antebellum, nominated just once in the top race (2010).
So why does the Country Music Association still have such a blind spot when it comes to women?
Be sure to make your CMA predictions so that Hollywood insiders can see this year’s contenders are faring in our CMA odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before winners are announced on November 14. 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.
