The CMT Awards Don’t Matter. Still.

Editor’s Note: An inordinate amount of individuals have asked for comment on the 2022 CMT Awards that transpired on April 11th. So here are some comments.
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Country music as a genre is unique in how it has its own dedicated award show organizations, and two of them as a matter of fact, and both of which that have been around for well over 50 years. But neither of them is the CMT Awards.
The CMA, or Country Music Association, was formed as a trade organization in 1958 to help the country music industry deal with the meteoric rise of rock and roll that was squeezing country music out of the popular music market. In 1967, they CMA decided to start an awards arm of the organization, giving out annual trophies for achievement in the genre. The first awards weren’t even televised—it was simply to recognize the top talent. 1968 was the first year fans could tune in to see the CMA awards and performances.
The CMA also does things well beyond handing out awards. The organization advocates for the industry in Congress and in government. They organize educational programs for music, and charitable programs for the community. The Country Music Hall of Fame also grew out of the CMA organization, and a select committee seeded by the CMA is who chooses the Hall of Fame inductees each year. The CMA isn’t just an awards show. It’s country music’s de facto governing body.
The Academy of Country Music, or ACM, actually preceded the formation of the CMA’s awards by a year, giving out its first awards in April of 1966, though the ACMs were very much an answer to the CMAs, just like the CMA Awards were an answer to the ACMs launching an awards arm. Artists from California and the West Coast—a.k.a. Capitol Records in Los Angeles and the “Bakersfield Sound”—felt they were being overlooked by the Nashville-based Country Music Association. Though a more dedicated awards show organization, even the ACMs didn’t televise their awards for the first six years, not adopting the television medium until 1972.
The first winners of the ACM Awards were very much members of the Bakersfield Sound era: Buck Owens, Bonnie Owens, Merle Haggard, Glenn Campbell, and the like. But by 1972, the ACMs were branching out to highlight all of country music, and became a regular staple in the annual awards show diet both for country music, and for popular American culture in general. Though often considered the other awards show to the CMAs, many consider the ACMs as just as prestigious.
Of course to many of country music’s older, more traditional, and purist fans, both of these awards shows organizations have long since beclowned themselves by allowing pop music into their ranks. In fact, in 1974 after Olivia Newton-John won a CMA Award, a host of more traditional country artists met at the home of George Jones and Tammy Wynette and formed their own organization called “ACE,” or the Association of Country Entertainers. Others involved were Porter Wagoner, Jim Ed Brown, Dottie West, Brenda Lee, Faron Young, Conway Twitty, Hank Snow, Mel Tillis, and Dolly Parton.
ACE didn’t last very long, but it helps illustrate that even among the two awards in country music, there is often dispute about who is being awarded, resulting in the splintering, and sometimes splintering again as groups of musicians feel they’re not being fairly represented. That’s how the ACMs came about, and how later we would see the rise of more independent awards organizations, such as the Americana Music Association, or the Ameripolitan Awards founded by Dale Watson.
So where do the CMTs, or Country Music Television Awards fit into all of this?
Simply put, they don’t. The CMT Video Awards are a fan-voted and network-based glorified infomercial with no significant history, relevance, or importance to the greater country music context. CMT is a dying network covering the dying medium of non on-demand music videos, with 90% of their programming comprising reruns of some sort. This basic understanding that the CMT Awards are only relevant to the CMT network has always been the approach of most of the music world. When someone dies, nobody cites the amount of CMT Awards they earned. When features are written about an artist, or the case is being made on if their career is Hall of Fame worthy or not, CMT Awards are not factored in.
That’s not to say that the CMT Awards are a total waste of time. Since people watch them, they do hold some semblance of relevance to something. In 2022, the CMT Awards graduated from being broadcast on CMT to being broadcast on CBS, where the ACM Awards used to be broadcast before they moved exclusively online. Both CBS and CMT are owned by Viacom. This did goose the viewership numbers for the CMT Awards, and significantly, though they were still lackluster compared to the previous era of awards shows. But what this also illustrated was the irrelevance of CMT. The network is now so forgotten in the greater cultural zeitgeist, it can’t even legitimately host the one event each year that people might tune in for.
Along with major media outlets such as Billboard, Rolling Stone, and others dedicating an over-inflated amount of coverage on the CMT Awards in 2022, after the CMT Awards, otherwise critical and skeptical country music fans who may never be caught dead praising any country music awards show—let alone the CMTs—were offering tempered, but positive takes on this year’s awards, since artists such as Parker McCollum and Cody Johnson won awards, along with Maddie & Tae, Miranda Lambert, and Carrie Underwood.
But again, the CMT Awards don’t matter. Just because one of your favorite artists, or more favorable artists to the country music cause win these awards doesn’t mean they’re relevant all of a sudden. That would be hypocritical. It does perhaps help further symbolize that country music is once again relevant in country music, and more traditional and substantive artists are on the rise. But again, it’s just the CMT Awards.
Some were excited that George Strait actually won a video award this year—the first in his legendary, Hall of Fame career. But the fact that George Strait had to wait until 2022 and nearly ten years after his road retirement to win a CMT Award should tell you all you should need to know about the CMT Awards.
So should the fact that whenever CMT does anything these days, they invite the 3-time accused rapist Nelly onto the set in their feeble attempt to present a “woke” agenda. This tells you all you need to know about how symbolic that woke agenda is, just like when the CMT Awards gave their inaugural Equal Play Award to Jennifer Nettles, who of course was a party to kicking LBGT member Kristen Hall out of Sugarland.
Picking on the CMT Awards is like picking on the short kid in school. It’s easy pickings, and so, it’s not really cool. It also runs the risk of somehow legitimizing this otherwise third rail glorified infomercial that even most country fans continue to ignore. Again, let’s not be foolish and act like they’re completely immaterial. Like mainstream country radio, some still do pay attention. But these are dinosaurs of a dying medium. Moving from CMT to CBS only elongates the extinction as the entire medium of television deprecates amid a rash of cord cutting by younger consumers, and people just caring less about awards shows in general.
Give credit to Leslie Fram and the folks over at CMT for doing what they can to maintain their flagship program, and lobbying CBS to broadcast it on their flagship network to help keep it alive for a few more years, and for trying to offer something a bit more forward-thinking in country music.
But somehow in 2022, a lot of folks seemed to lose focus. It’s still the CMT Awards. And ultimately, they just don’t matter.
April 20, 2022 @ 9:09 am
The fact that any Country music award show today has to pull in artists from other genres is proof enough that they lost the plot.
If you watch any of the Country award shows on youtube, from the 90’s, nearly all the nominated and winning songs and artists have stood the test of time. It’s incredible.
I’m torn on acknowledging Nelly’s rape allegations when Johnny Paycheck and others have the same past problems.
April 20, 2022 @ 9:20 am
Johnny Paycheck never received his own Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float after three separate women accused him of sexual assault. I’m stupefied how the most-touted artist by CMT over the last few years is a washed up rapper with a shady past. If the accusations had come out after the #MeToo movement, we would have never heard from him again, like Ryan Adams. I appreciate CMT wants to offer equal representation. Aren’t there plenty of black country artists you could tout? But like you said, it’s all about getting eyeballs on their presentations. And to do that, they believe you need artists outside of country music. Because as always, country music suffers from an inferiority complex.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:19 am
Sorry, the “Me-Too” movement predates Nelly by generations. The movement with that phrase is credited to activist Tamara Burke in 2006, but the “Women must be believed” mantra goes back at least as far as Anita Hill and the Clarence Thomas hearing in 1990. As a “progressive” movement, “Me-too”‘s primary target is white males, whom they view as representing the power structure that oppresses women and eveyone else. If the accused taget is not a dreaded white male–(and not a conservative)–then the “Me-too” movement isn’t quite sure about how to deal with it.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:26 am
Let’s not get too semantic here. Nelly was accused of rape by a woman while on tour with Florida Georgia Line on October 7th, 2017 in Auburn, Washington. October 15th is when Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter, “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem” in connection with the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. If the accusations against Nelly had happened two weeks later, he wouldn’t be making appearances on CMT events.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:46 am
@Lucky,
Excellent comment.
April 22, 2022 @ 5:16 am
Totally agree
April 20, 2022 @ 10:22 am
just watch it boy jennifer nettles was in the right how do you know Sugarland’s mysterious third member wasn’t a pain in the ass to have in the band? may be thats why they kicked er out?
April 20, 2022 @ 11:15 am
The lawsuit (and the information that came out because of it) filed by said ‘kicked out’ member disproves your theory.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:29 am
The #MeToo movement seems to mostly be a white women’s ‘civil rights movement’. Also I’m not aware of the push by other black people to include more people of color in country music. From what I can tell, it seems that the Country Rap/Hick Hop genre is doing more to court black listenership.
April 20, 2022 @ 12:00 pm
The black Opry. Just had a sold out crowd at city winery. It had happened from what I seen a lot of industry was there.
April 20, 2022 @ 5:07 pm
Twitter journal-activists aren’t industry.
I’ve been to the Black Opry web page to sample. Outside of a few talented ones that Trig profiled here long before Black Opry was an idea, the overwhelming majority aren’t talented at all nor country.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:43 am
Doesn’t Ryan Adams have an album that just came out? Louis CK just won a Grammy as well. Maybe someone just really wanted to shoehorn in a “Whoa Nelly!” joke or something!
April 20, 2022 @ 12:15 pm
Get back with me when they give Ryan Adams or Louis CK their own Thanksgiving Day parade float, or book them on the CMT Awards.
CMT doesn’t do anything without Nelly involved. So they must be getting lots of mileage out of that “Whoh, Nelly!” joke.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:00 am
The CMT Awards are the participation trophy of award shows.
When I played Little League, every kid in the league got a trophy. No one cared about any of those trophies after five minutes. But it sure made the league commissioner feel good about himself.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:02 am
In other news Elton John is still gay.
April 20, 2022 @ 10:31 am
Maybe today’s artists just aren’t as good since Charlie Pride and Elton John sold millions and millions of albums despite obvious racism and homophobia in the 60’s and 70’s. I’m always saddened to see modern black artists I like, such as Robert Randolph post videos of himself listening to trap rap.
April 20, 2022 @ 1:45 pm
Tumbleweed Connection is musically more country than anything on the CMT award show, Garbage Brooks. Of course, that’s because it has fiddle and steel guitar in the grooves.
April 21, 2022 @ 8:05 am
That Honky Chateau too
April 20, 2022 @ 10:13 am
I always liked the Music City News Awards. Held during Fan Fair. Voters were subscribers of the magazine. I know they merged with the TNN Awards and then dissolved. Man…I am old and miss the good ol’days.
April 20, 2022 @ 2:14 pm
I miss TNN.
April 22, 2022 @ 5:37 pm
And CMT (just like MTV) was at their best when they only played videos.
April 20, 2022 @ 3:22 pm
Me too…
I wouldn’t waste my money on that….
I don’t know anyone in that Fan Fair line up now.
It used to be so fun!
April 22, 2022 @ 11:32 pm
Yaaaas!!! The Tnn Music City News Awards!!!!
April 20, 2022 @ 10:14 am
I am looking forward to county artist and white rappers at the BET awards.
April 25, 2022 @ 6:45 pm
I believe Kane Brown appeared on the BET awards.
April 27, 2022 @ 7:24 am
Kane Brown performed at the BET awards. Jack Harlow has been nominated and Eminem has been nominated and/or performed several times
April 20, 2022 @ 10:25 am
I had checked in here the night of to see if you were blogging the show and was not surprised you weren’t. I turned the show on twice, first time the dufuss hosts were on, the second time Little Big Town popsters were on. They didn’t get a third chance. Thanks for the good history in the article.
April 20, 2022 @ 11:13 am
The bad thing is the awards and some performances were actually good. The bad… such an agenda they were pushing and so obvious. Made it unbearable for me.
April 20, 2022 @ 11:22 am
The CMT awards found their way on my TV this year. I just happened to have CBS on and at 8 pm there was Keith Urban (if I would have had on a different channel, I wouldn’t have even known the CMTs weee a thing). Award shows just got to be entertaining. Like the NFL Draft and the Heisman in college football, just tweet me the winners. I found the CMT award show entertaining, although I couldn’t tell you one winner. I enjoyed the Judds, Miranda, and Cody Johnson and many of the other performances. I thought it worked (but availability was the CMTs biggest leg up on say the ACMs).
April 20, 2022 @ 11:43 am
I was happy to see Cody and Parker get some attention at the very least. Any positive mainsteam exposure, especially on national broadcast tv (despite declining viewership) is great for those two.
April 20, 2022 @ 12:18 pm
Cody Johnson and Parker McCollum benefit little from the exposure because they already have large, dedicated fans bases. That’s how they won, because remember, these are fan-voted awards. The artists who need and benefit from shows like these are artists like Breland that have no fans, and cannot sell hard tickets. They are machinations of the industry, and thus need events like this to connect with the public.
April 21, 2022 @ 7:55 am
I 100% agree with your second point regarding artists like Breland benefiting more from the exposure; however, I would have to imagine that Cody and Parker still benefitted from their appearances though. Surely there were viewers watching who may not have been very familiar with either artist, who would be more inclined to give these guys a chance after watching them perform. I understand that the overall net gain is likely small, but its still a positive gain.
April 21, 2022 @ 8:11 am
Sure. I’m not saying there’s no gain to be had, or it’s not better that these guys are winning these awards as opposed to worse alternatives. But if Breland and Sam Hunt had won these awards, we’d all be assuring ourselves how much the CMT Awards don’t matter.
April 22, 2022 @ 10:00 pm
I can’t wrap my head around why they push Breland or even Jimmy Allan so hard. And it’s just not the fact that they aren’t country.. it’s obvious they would be at the bottom any genre they decided to try. Charley Crocketts pinky is more country and has more talent then these two. So excuse me while I go enjoy his newest record.
April 20, 2022 @ 12:25 pm
Of course yall have a problem with it? Why not? Too many black folks right? WHITES just continue to be racist and it is just soooo prevelant in country music. SICKENING. ????
April 20, 2022 @ 12:29 pm
I wrote 17 paragraphs, and at no point did I say or imply there were “too many black folks” on the CMT Awards. I did give CMT and Leslie Fram credit for “trying to offer something a bit more forward-thinking in country music.” What is “sickening” is putting a three-time accused rapist and rapper on the stage when you have so many Black country artists that could have benefited from that exposure.
April 21, 2022 @ 4:50 am
Nelly, is that you?
April 20, 2022 @ 12:41 pm
I am overly critical of today’s country because the older generation hated 90s country back in the day. They compared many of the artists to George, Merle, and so many of the greats. So here we are 20+ years later and we are still comparing to the music to an older generation, but now loving 90s country.
The award show was HORRIBLE. I thought since it was now on a major network, the production would be better. I am all for Mickey Guyton, Jimmie Allen and others bringing a new sound to country. I know Kelsea B had to drop out because of Covid, but wasn’t there anyone else to host the show other than an actor from California and Kane Brown? The message is starting to feel heavy-handed. I don’t understand how Mickey Guyton was picked to sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, but yet she has never had a Top 10 hit. Why is Breland being shoved down our throats at the expense of so many artists not being given an opportunity at an award show? Kane Brown has never won a major award, yet he is hosting an award show. I am hopeful for diversity to be in country music, but my questions is has it been earned?
April 20, 2022 @ 5:39 pm
Yeah man its such a mystery why mickey guyton gets so much hype LOL
April 20, 2022 @ 12:49 pm
The “C”MT awards are still a thing?
Well…
A couple of hours ago the 50th Toyota Golden Guitar awards took place as part of the 50th Toyota Country Music Festival in Tamworth.
It’s a small town, a small venue, a small market for country music with a short red carpet but a two hour long red carpet pre-show. It was cute & cringe at the same time.
For many artists Tamworth is the hometown…it felt like a big family reunion again.
The (emotional) highlight came when co-host & multi-award winning Beccy Cole was announced as the newest member of the Roll of Renown.
CMT Australia is the sponsor of the Aussie Video of the Year award…& it went to Luke O’Shea feat. Ashleigh Dallas for the super-pro dancing routine video for “Long Way ‘Round”.
CMT down under is not much better than CMT but a song/video like “Long Way…” would never ever win an award on CMT.
Ashleigh Dallas also won Best Female Artist of the Year.
Superstar Troy Cassar-Daley took home three awards (Male Artist, Vocal Collaboration & Top Selling Album). With 40 GGs he overtook Slim Dusty & Lee Kernaghan.
Shane Nicholson won 4 awards (Overall Album Of The Year, Alt-Country Album & both single & song for his #1 hit “And You Will Have Your Way”).
Both Instrumental & Bluegrass went to The Weeping Willows (for “Southern Gothic” & “Black Crow”).
Michael Waugh got the award for the Heritage Song of the Year (“Dirty River”).
Co-host Adam Harveys current album Songs From Highway One was awarded the Traditional Album of the Year.
Man of the moment is Angus Gill…he won Bush Ballad of the Year (his first GG), has his first #1 single (“The Scrapbook”) this week, had his first #1 single as producer (for “Push ‘Em Up Jill / Rae Leigh) a couple of weeks ago & is the co-writer of the new charted T.C. Cassidy single.
The Wolfe Brothers won two awards (worked with LoTrash on the current album) while Australias version of LBT Darlinghurst went home with Best Newcomers.
Max Jackson is the 2022 Toyota Star Maker…the biggest country music talent contest in AustralAsia. Many of the current stars became a Star maker winner in the past like Lee Kernaghan, Beccy Cole, Lyn Bowtell, James Blundell…& a guy who became one of the biggest disappointments in the history of country music…Keith Urban.
No..i am not sponsored by Toyota…i drive Audi…Vorsprung durch Technik baby…lol.
But Toyota is THE primary sponsor of aussie country music for 30 years now & very committed since day one.
April 20, 2022 @ 2:19 pm
Wow. That was like you were speaking Greek. Haha! Australian country is totally foreign to me.
April 21, 2022 @ 4:22 am
Y’all are great at making up wild names for things and you choose a boring name like “Aussie Country Music”? Kind of disappointed I expected something like “The Happalinglong Sound”. Y’all named a bird a kookaburra so I know you’ve got the creativity.
April 20, 2022 @ 12:50 pm
Does anyone of any relevance say otherwise?
April 20, 2022 @ 2:29 pm
Isn’t the CMA’s born out of the old TNN/Music City News awards?
April 20, 2022 @ 5:08 pm
Remember those? I’d get the ballot from the Sunday edition of The Tennessean, fill it out, then send it in.
April 20, 2022 @ 5:21 pm
Where is it written that Carrie Over-rated Underwood has to win an award on every award show? She hasn’t been country since Jesus Took the Wheel and she cares more about hair and fashion than music. Even CMT plays the same videos every day so many times day and night and most of the men and women look alike, sound alike and there is nothing original about their music. Even Luke Bryan’s song Up sounds like his song Fast.
April 25, 2022 @ 4:57 pm
Carrie Underwood has been member of the Grand Ole Opry for years and performs their frequently which to me proves her love of country music. Now Miranda Lambert is “not “ an Opry member because she never wanted to bother performing at the Opry in order to get inducted. Miranda still never performs at the Opry but she is doing a Las Vegas residency this fall. Just shows where Miranda’s priorities are. Now Carrie is doing a LV residency yet still manages to perform at the Opry too.
April 20, 2022 @ 7:39 pm
I can’t get over how ugly the ACM & CMT trophies are.
April 25, 2022 @ 3:23 pm
At least Carrie can actually sing whether you like her or not. Overrated Miranda Lambert has unfairly gotten all her paid for cm awards for years and she can’t sing. Miranda has absolutely no vocal range. Not to mention zero stage presence.
April 21, 2022 @ 5:41 am
if you watch the George Jones & Randy Travis “influences” vid a commenter posted here back to back with any of these made up contemporary country awards, you immediately understand the meaning of the word decadence.
April 21, 2022 @ 6:00 am
Since when is hip hop rap music country? It is turning country music off and turning all this crap into the same. You never hear of country music singers going into their awards show and doing country. Not that they can’t because it only takes a simply minded pea brain to do it.
April 21, 2022 @ 7:11 am
To me, the better question overall is this–Does the country music industry need THIS many awards shows to prove its validity, or the validity of Country as a still-legitimate music genre in today’s America? Because it seems to me that these awards shows, apart from the CMA’s and the ACM’s, exist only to feed the outsized egos of a lot of these artists, and to make it what a lot of people have long suspected has been true for at least twenty years–that it’s all, or nearly all, about money, fame, glam, and chest-thumping, and almost nothing anymore about reality.
Again, I think Linda Ronstadt had it right when she said that, while it was nice for her work to be acknowledged with awards, that wasn’t what she did it for, she did it because she loved the music: “If you’re working for prizes, you’re in big trouble.” I so dearly wish that country music’s people, artists and industry chieftains alike, would take a cue from her outlook.
April 21, 2022 @ 8:16 am
No other genre has its own major dedicated awards show, and with country having two, adding a third to the American major network diet could definitely comes across as ostentatious. Remember, FOX tried to launch an awards show a few years back, and it failed. I do think the CMT Awards will succeed on CBS to some extent, but it could also have the effect of diluting all three of them. The Grammy Awards also do a really good job covering country and Americana/roots.
April 22, 2022 @ 9:17 am
“Don’t give up the music for the show” Waylon.
April 21, 2022 @ 8:09 am
Social media promotion has replaced record label promotion and in part, touring. With the previous model, in many ways the best rose to the top. Today it’s about winning a popularity contest online. *cough* Midland *cough*
in 2022, being in an “oppressed group” and effectively flaunting your victim-hood is a much better strategy for success than…..just being the best.
April 23, 2022 @ 10:20 am
Truth! Im tired of the “woke” country stuff. Its constantly rammed down our throats. I just dont really care to hear any of it. It bugs me when country stars whine about not being treated fairly, especially given they are pampered, rich, wealthy, and adored. It comes off the wrong way, and its elitist. There is a long history in country for tasteful and thoughtful protest songs. But listing a bunch of grievances and moaning about stuff, or trying to suggest Nashville is a place only for liberal thought and artists, rubs me the wrong way. Country should be for everyone, not just one political party, or the accepted PC way of thinking. In fact, country history is all about people and artists who bucked that ideology and were all about thinking outside the box and pushing limits. Toeing the party line and making music that is in line with “woke” ideology is the exact opposite of this
April 21, 2022 @ 10:31 am
Sad, actually. Back in the day, I loved CMT.
That being said, I’d argue that not only are the CMT awards irrelevant, but so are the ACM and CMA awards.
April 21, 2022 @ 11:09 am
The current CMT’s are a joke. This is COUNTRY music not an all genre music fest. This has destroyed Nashville. The person’s that host the show are not country music at all. This used to be a very popular awards show but since the industry has decided, probably by some younger generation producers, to incorporate “stars” as they see it, rather than REAL country music artists. This music will die. This is not pop country. This is COUNTRY music. The show has sucked for a few years now. Thanks for ruining our country music culture over money.
April 21, 2022 @ 11:52 am
Well said!!!
April 21, 2022 @ 4:41 pm
So much for fan voted awards! This year 2022 is the 1st year I can remember, because like Barbara Mandrell said, i was country when country wasnt cool, that I have not watched the CMA’S. Why? You ask; it’s this whole Morgan Wallen thing going on that has me so troubled and well I just cannot figure out who makes the rules anymore. Undoubtedly it’s the Cancel Culture, or maybe the CMT people, but now he has said he is sorry, has even paid restitution, to NOT ALLOW HIM HIS RIGHTFUL SPOT ON THE CMA’S IS DEMEANING AND DOWN RIGHT UGLY!!! When is enough enough? Leave the man alone, he has already proved he is an awesome entertainer and writer and singer! Now he has a beautiful son to be a good role model for. Rant over!
Morgan & Indi ????
April 22, 2022 @ 6:54 am
Not just the CMT Awards but it seems the whole concept of a two plus hour schmooze fest with attendees posing and reading pre-scripted acceptance speeches seems to be a little past the “sell by date” these days.
April 24, 2022 @ 8:36 pm
Sounds like a lot of jealousy here. If I were an artist, I would surely feel like fan-voted awards mattered, rather than those decided by a panel made up of industry cronies who dicker and make back room deals to get their respective people to the top.
April 25, 2022 @ 3:17 pm
Miranda Lambert has built an entire career on paid for country music awards. Now Miranda even wants CMT awards.???? Miranda is a great example of awards being giving out to someone for years who doesn’t deserve them because she lacks the vocal talent and is a very boring entertainer in concert. Yet other deserving female country music artists that need the promotion are ignored for literally years at these award shows. I think all the cm awards are a joke.