Reba McEntire will be hosting the Academy of Country Music Awards for the 16th time this year. That’s a significant honor, but it also means she alone has hosted the show more often than any woman has won the award for Entertainer of the Year. And that won’t change this year because for the second year in a row all of the Entertainer of the Year nominees are men. “I was very disappointed about that,” she recently told Stephen Colbert when appearing on “The Late Show.” “I wanted to hear some women in there.” Watch that part of the conversation above.
The ACM Awards have presented their Entertainer of the Year prize 48 times. Only 10 of those times has the winner been a woman. McEntire was one of them; she prevailed in 1995. And she’s joined on that short list by Loretta Lynn (1975), Dolly Parton (1978), Barbara Mandrell (1981), Shania Twain (2000), Dixie Chicks (2001), Carrie Underwood (2009-2010) and Taylor Swift (2011-2012). As you can see, Underwood and Swift are the only women who have ever won twice. And it’s probably not a coincidence that Underwood and Swift won their awards during the eight year period when Entertainer of the Year was voted on by fans. Music listeners seem to be more appreciative of female artists than the country music industry is.
It’s hard to win Entertainer of the Year if you’re not even nominated. In just the last 10 years female nominees have accounted for just 12 out of 54 nominations in the top category (22%). It’s even worse when you narrow it down to just the last five years, when women earned 3 out of the 25 Entertainer of the Year nominations (12%).
And it’s not just Entertainer of the Year. This year female artists are represented in just one of the five nominees for Duo of the Year, two of the five nominees for Group of the Year, one of the five nominees for Album of the Year, one of the five nominees for Single of the Year, two of the six nominees for Song of the Year, one of the six nominees for Video of the Year, and one of the five nominees for Songwriter of the Year.
Are you as disappointed as McEntire by the shortfall for women? Is it time for the Academy of Country Music to step up?
Be sure to make your ACM predictions so that music 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 in our music forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
