Carly Pearce On CMA Nomination: 'A Full Circle Moment'

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Carly Pearce has dreamt of being a country music singer since she was a little girl, and one of the things that has always been part of her dream is being nominated for a CMA Award. That just happened for the first time: she is one of the nominees for New Artist of the Year at tonight's CMAs.

Pearce admits that she was shocked to learn she was a nominee and recalls when her husband Michael Ray told her, “I was making eggs and … I genuinely was completely shocked and burned our eggs. We ended up eating them though, but I just started running around the house. So, it was just a really powerful moment for females, and to be able to have that pure moment that I will forever have with my fiancée (at the time) of just running around the house with my hands up. I had no words.”

Carly posted to Instagram last night, "I wish I could go back and tell that 16 year old girl with country music dreams working at @dollywood that one day she’d be nominated at the #cmaawards & performing for the first time on the same show that her hero was a host. What a full circle moment tomorrow night will be Thank you for sharing my story, @abcnetwork !!!"

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The 53rd CMA Awards will air live from Nashville tonight on ABC.

Carly Pearce CMA Awards

Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media GroupEditor

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.