Lambert, McGraw Lead ACM Noms

Lambert and McGraw are up for seven awards apiece at the April 6 awards show. The nominations were announced Wednesday morning in a series of videos via social media.

Keith Urban is up for six awards, and Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, Kacey Musgraves and Lee Brice have five apiece. Florida Georgia Line and Lady Antebellum are next with four nods.

Lambert and husband Shelton are nominated for the top honor, the fan-voted entertainer of the year, with Swift, 2013 winner Luke Bryan and George Strait.

The nomination continues something of a victory lap for Strait, who is wrapping up his final tour this year. He’s a former winner in the category who recently won the rival Country Music Association’s entertainer of the year trophy.

Lambert will be going for a fifth straight win in the female vocalist of the year category and her “Mama’s Broken Heart” earned nominations for single record, song and video of the year. She also received two nominations in the vocal event category for collaborations with Keith Urban and as part of the Pistol Annies with Shelton.

McGraw picked up two nominations apiece as artist and producer for album, single record and vocal event of the year. His album Two Lanes of Freedom joins Kacey Musgraves’ Grammy Award-winning Same Trailer Different Park, Shelton’s Based on a True Story …, Bryan’s Crash My Party and FGL’s Here’s to the Good Times in the album of the year category.

Jason Aldean is nominated for male vocalist of the year with Urban, Shelton, Bryan and Brice. Lambert received her eighth nomination for female vocalist of the year, joining Swift, Musgraves, Carrie Underwood and Sheryl Crow in the category.

Shelton and Bryan will co-host the CBS broadcast from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.