Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Mcgraw Leads With 7 Acm Nominations

Darryl Morden The Hollywood Reporter

Tim McGraw led this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards nominations with seven, including four for “It’s Your Love,” his No. 1 duet with wife Faith Hill. George Strait, Trisha Yearwood and Hill earned four nominations each.

CBS will televise the 33rd annual ACM Awards from the Universal Amphitheatre on April 22.

McGraw, who won two ACMs in 1995, joins Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, George Strait and Reba McEntire in the coveted entertainer of the year category and competes with Strait, Alan Jackson, Collin Raye and Bryan White as top male vocalist. Top female vocalist nominees are Yearwood, LeAnn Rimes, Martina McBride, Deana Carter and last year’s winner, Patty Loveless.

Album of the year contenders are McGraw’s “Everywhere,” Brooks’ “Sevens,” Strait’s “Carrying Your Love With Me,” Shania Twain’s “Come on Over” and Loveless’ “Long Stretch of Lonesome.” Squaring off for top vocal duet or group - formerly separate categories - are Brooks & Dunn, Alabama, Diamond Rio, Lonestar and Sawyer Brown.

Diamond Rio’s “How Your Love Makes Me Feel” and Strait’s “Carrying Your Love With Me” battle for record of the year with “It’s Your Love” and Rimes’ and Yearwood’s dueling versions of “How Do I Live.” The latter three are also up for song of the year against Clint Black’s “Something That We Do,” “All the Good Ones Are Gone” by Pam Tillis and Lee Ann Womack’s “The Fool.”

Womack competes with Sara Evans and 15-year-old Lila McCann as top new female vocalist, while new male vocalist honorees are Rhett Akins, Michael Peterson and Kenny Chesney, who’s actually been around a while, so go figure. Top new vocal duet or group nods went to Big House, the Lynns and twin sisters the Kinleys.

Added as a new category this year is top vocal event. The team-ups are Yearwood and Brooks for “In Another’s Eyes,” Toby Keith and Sting for “I’m So Happy (I Can’t Stop Crying),” “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me” by Loveless and George Jones, the McGraw-Hill duet “It’s Your Love” and “What if I Said” by Anita Cochran and Steve Wariner.

Video of the year nominees are a mixed bunch, led by “It’s Your Love,” Diamond Rio’s “How Your Love Makes Me Feel,” McBride’s “A Broken Wing” and on the more playful side, Kathy Mattea’s “455 Rocket” and Deana Carter’s “Did I Shave My Legs for This?”