Carrie Underwood: ‘I Feel So Blessed To Be A Female In Country Music’

Carrie Underwood goes into Wednesday's (11/9) CMA Awards nominated in three categories: Musical Event for "If I Didn't Love You," her duet with Jason Aldean; Female Vocalist; and the coveted Entertainer of the Year.

Carrie told us of the nod for Entertainer, the night's top honor, "It is obviously such an honor to be nominated in Entertainer of the Year. Obviously, that's such a tough category to be in, 'cause there's just so... I don't even want to call it a competition. There's just so many hard-working artists out there that are just pouring themselves and their time and their energy and their love and their artistry into what they do."

She added, "Obviously, just to even be in the final category is just absolutely amazing, and hopefully, above all, we can all just remember that it's a celebration of a great year in country music and in our careers as artists. So, we'll just see what happens, but definitely excited to be in that category."

Underwood also talked about being a Female Vocalist nominee, an award she has won from the CMA five times already in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2016, and 2018. She offered, "I feel so blessed to be a female in country music. I love country music so much, and I feel like we have so many talented, gorgeous, amazing females in our genre of music. So, just to be a female in country music is amazing in and of itself. Obviously, to be in the female vocalist category at the CMAs is pretty darn special. I feel like, especially with this group of ladies, everybody just lifts each other up, roots for each other, and supports each other. So, I'm very blessed to be surrounded by so many incredible ladies."

Carrie is also nominated for her duet with Jason Aldean, "If I Didn't Love You." She said of the nomination, "I absolutely love 'If I Didn't Love You.' I love being able to work with Jason Aldean and record this song and perform this song. It's been such a huge smash for both of us. We knew it was special, and we knew it was going to be good, but I feel like it exceeded any and all expectations that either one of us had, and it's been so much fun to just watch people love the song."

She concluded, "To be included in the Musical Event category for the CMAs is really awesome. I'll definitely be holding my breath for that one 'cause I just love the song so much. So, we'll see what happens."

The 56th Annual CMA Awards will air from Nashville tomorrow night (11/9) starting at 8 PM ET on ABC.

On Wednesday night (11/9) in Nashville, The CMA Awards will crown a new Entertainer of the Year. The nominees are reigning CMA Entertainer Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, and Morgan Wallen this year.

As we near the big night for a country music star who will be crowned with the CMA's top honor, we take a look at years past and who holds the most Entertainer of the Year wins for the evening's most coveted prize.

Several acts won the honor twice, including Taylor Swift (2009, 2011), Luke Bryan (2014, 2015), and Keith Urban (2005, 2018). The very first artist to win the Entertainer of the Year awards twice in a row was Barbara Mandrell in 1980 and 1981. The last artist to win the honor twice in a row was Luke Bryan in 2014 and 2015.

The 56th Annual CMA Awards will air live on ABC starting at 8 PM ET.

Alan will get the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's 2022 CMA Awards. Jackson won his ETOTY awards in 1995, then repeated the win both in 2002 and 2003.

George was at the height of his fame in 1989 and won that year and the next. It wasn't until 23 years later that Strait won the trophy again in 2013.

Kenny's big sell-out stadium tours contributed to his winning the Entertainer of the Year Award a whopping four times.

Garth has the most wins in the top category and even took himself out of the running after his win in 2019 because he felt it was time to give the award to someone else.