Country star Lainey Wilson led Wednesday’s 2023 CMT Music Awards nominees, followed by Cody Johnson, first-time nominee Jelly Roll and show co-host Kane Brown.
“Heart Like a Truck” singer Lainey Wilson led Wednesday’s 2023 CMT Music Awards nominees with four nominations, including twice in the marquee video of the year category.
The fan favorite will face off with 15 other music videos in the top category during the annual fan-voted awards show, which will be broadcast live on CBS on April 2. Other nominees for video of the year include Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Carrie Underwood and the “Bonfire at Tina’s” collaborators Ashley McBryde, Caylee Hammack, Brandy Clark and Pillbox Patti.
Wilson, whose “Heart Like a Truck,” is nominated for video of the year, is also co-nominated with HARDY for their “wait in the truck” video.
While some awards shows are moving toward gender-neutral categories, the CMT Music Awards further divvied up its breakthrough video of the year category into male and female subcategories. The expansion, CMT said, is meant to “to more thoroughly celebrate country music’s new talent. This year, 12 nominees are recognized across the “twin categories.”
This year’s other top nominees include Cody Johnson, first-time nominee Jelly Roll and Kane Brown, all of whom scored three nods apiece on Wednesday. Brown, who is nominated alongside his wife Katelyn Brown for “Thank God,” is set to co-host the ceremony with singer-songwriter Kelsea Ballerini from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. (Ballerini is nominated twice for “Heartfirst.”)
With 25 wins, country superstar Underwood holds the record for the most wins for video of the year and has the most wins of any artist at the awards show. The “Hate My Heart” and “Ghost Story” singer is nominated twice this year for the songs’ respective music videos and she is set to perform at the awards show. In November, she and Ballerini announced that the ceremony would be relocating from Nashville, Tenn., to Austin, where it will be held for the first time.
The Judds, who memorably reunited to perform “Love Can Build a Bridge” at last year’s ceremony just weeks before matriarch Naomi Judd’s death, are among the 10 nominees for CMT performance of the year.
