Ella Langley led the 60th annual CMA Awards nominations with nine nods, tying the record for the most nominations in a single year by a female artist. It was the clearest headline from a list that also put Miranda Lambert on seven nominations and kept several other names close behind.
The reason the list matters today is simple: it is the nomination count that will shape the 60th annual CMA Awards, and it showed a rare concentration of women at the top. Kacey Musgraves and Ben West each picked up five nominations, while Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and Stephen Wilson Jr. each got four. Dave Clauss, Luke Combs and Wilson each landed three.
Langley’s reach went beyond the top line. She was nominated for entertainer of the year alongside Combs, Johnson, Stapleton and Wilson, and she also landed two single-of-the-year nods, for “Choosin' Texas” and “Be Her.” That made her the eighth artist in CMA history to have two nominations in the same year in that category, and “Choosin' Texas” had already logged 21 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
That success still sits inside a bigger ceiling. The all-time record for nominations in one year remains 10, set by Alan Jackson in 2002. Langley matched the female-artist mark first set by Miranda Lambert in 2010, matched again by Lambert in 2014, and equaled by Lainey Wilson in 2023, which keeps her just one step short of the overall record even as she leads this year's field.
The single-of-the-year category is where the list breaks cleanest with old patterns. Female artists accounted for four of the five nominees there for the first time in CMA history, with Taylor Swift's “I Knew It, I Knew You” and Wilson's “Somewhere Over Laredo” joining Langley's two songs. Cody Johnson's “The Fall” was the lone male-artist single in the group, and Jay Joyce received his 14th nomination for single of the year as producer of “Somewhere Over Laredo.”
Other records and streaks give the ballot extra weight. Miranda Lambert received her 19th nomination for female vocalist of the year, Shane McAnally earned his 11th song-of-the-year nomination for co-writing Kacey Musgraves' “Dry Spell,” and Little Big Town stretched its vocal-group run to 21 years in a row. The new-artist field included Avery Anna, Carter Faith, Emily Ann Roberts, Tucker Wetmore and Stephen Wilson Jr., with Wetmore and Wilson both returning for a second try. Jack Antonoff also picked up his first CMA nomination as co-producer of Swift's “I Knew It, I Knew You.”
The list also included first-time CMA Awards nominees Smith Ahnquist, Tim Cofield, Austin Goodloe, Muscadine Bloodline and Caylee Robilla. The next marker is the 60th annual CMA Awards itself, where the nomination totals will be tested against the votes that now sit behind them.
