Maren Morris and Miranda Lambert are the top nominees for the 2021 CMT Music Awards, which will air Wednesday, June 9. Each received four nominations: female video of the year, collaborative video of the year, and two nominations each for video of the year.
Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown, who are set to co-host the show, each received three nominations, as did Little Big Town and Mickey Guyton.
The first round of nominees for the video of the year award includes Carrie Underwood, who has won in the category eight times, more than anyone else. She is nominated this year for “Hallelujah,” a collaboration with John Legend. Underwood is the most-awarded artist in CMT Music Awards history with 22 wins.
On June 1, CMT revealed the six finalists for video of the year, drawn from the initial list of 14 contenders. The finalists are: Underwood with Legend’s “Hallelujah,” Elle King and Lambert’s “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” Brown’s “Worldwide Beautiful,” Keith Urban with P!nk’s “One Too Many,” Ballerini’s “hole in the bottle” and Kenny Chesney’s “Knowing You.”
Underwood isn’t the only video of the year finalist who is a past winner in the category. Urban is a three-time winner. Chesney won once. Three of the six finalists for video of the year are collabs. No collab has ever won in the category.
