Now it’s up to the fans to narrow down the list of nominations into four finalists for each category in this first round of voting that ends May 3. On May 11, CMT will announce the finalists and then turn it over to the fans one more time to pick the winners. The CMT Awards take place June 9 at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and will air live on the country music cable channel.
Aldean’s “The Truth” is nominated for video of the year and male video of the year, while his work with Bryan Adams on “Heaven” recorded for “CMT Crossroads” is up for collaborative video and performance of the year.
Lady Antebellum scored group video of the year noms for “American Honey” and “Need You Now” with the latter also nominated for video of the year. The band’s “Lookin’ For A Good Time,” which was recorded at last year’s CMT Music Awards, received a nod for performance of the year.
Sugarland also has two vids in the same category as visual versions of “Keep You” and “Nightswimming/Joey” picked up nominations in the duo video category. Sugarland also received nominations in the collaborative vid and performance of the year categories for their rendition of “Love Shack” with The B-52’s at last year’s awards.
Fans get to decide the nominations for all but the video of the year category. For that special honor, CMT will announce the nominees at the beginning of the awards program and fans can then vote via text messaging. For more information on this year’s awards, including a complete list of noms and how to vote, please click here for the CMT Web site.