56th ACM Awards

Nominees for the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards were announced Friday on CBS This Morning.

Carrie Underwood is in good company. Sure, a reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year has been shut out of a gender-specific artist category before, but you have to go back a long time to find that instance, and even then there were extenuating circumstances.

While Underwood, the 2020 ACM Entertainer of the Year, has one nomination for the 2021 ACM Awards, it's not in one of the primary categories. Her fans noticed:


The last time Underwood didn't get a nod, Gretchen Wilson took home the hardware — it has never happened during the superstar's 15-year career. An argument could be made that Underwood was between studio albums (country studio albums, at least), and she only had a single Top 20 hit with "Drinking Alone."

But we won't make that argument — Underwood was snubbed like few have been snubbed before. Maybe she shouldn't get bonus points for her legacy, but that would go against 55 previous years of country music awards shows. She's one of the biggest stars on the planet, and with a Christmas album, a book, documentary and a win at the 2020 show, she deserved to be nominated.

She's not alone, either. Here are eight more snubs and surprises among the 2021 ACM Awards nominations. They include artists like Dan + Shay and Chris Stapleton, plus songs and albums.



2021 ACM Nomination Snubs and Surprises
Carrie Underwood is a snub, while Kane Brown is a surprise. An argument could be made for an overhaul to Song or Single of the Year categories, while one country male must have woken up on Friday morning (Feb. 26) and thought, "Well, isn't that something?"

Here is a list of nine ACM snubs and surprises, based on fan response and Taste of Country staff opinion.

Snub: Carrie Underwood
The last Entertainer of the Year to not be nominated in either the same category, or his/her artist specific category the following year was George Strait, who won the ACM in 2014 as he set off for retirement. Underwood's My Gift album was eligible for the 2021 ACMs, and she did have some radio success last year. Another EOTY nomination may have been a stretch, but it's not difficult to argue for her on the Female Artist of the Year ballot.

Surprise: Chris Stapleton
Chris Stapleton was very quiet in 2020. The title track to his new album wasn't released as a radio single until late summer, and the album didn't drop until November. Frankly, he's the kind of vocalist that one could justify in Male Vocalist or Artist categories in perpetuity, but voters saw him as much more last year, despite a thin resume.