2023 CMA Awards – Your Kicks Wake Up Krew’s Predictions

The 2023 CMA Awards are coming up TONIGHT on ABC at 8 p.m.  So, on the show this morning, we made our predictions for who would win in each category. Check it out, and watch the show tonight to see if we got them right!

Dub [00:00:00] So the 2023 CMA Awards is tonight. So let's make our official predictions on who we think is going to win. Let's start with musical event of the year. Cody, your pick.

Cody [00:00:11] All right. So my pick for musical event of the year is going to be Save Me. That's Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson. I mean, they're both up for a lot of nominations, so I feel like it's a big year for them.

Dub [00:00:20] And I'm going to go with Lainey Wilson as well. But this time Lainey Wilson with HARDY. I'm pickin' Wait In The Truck.

Cody [00:00:26] Also a really, really great pick.

Dub [00:00:28] For musical event of the year. New Artist of the Year. My pick is going to be Jelly Roll.

Cody [00:00:33] That's a good one. But I went with Zach Bryan on this one also because he had a pretty big year.

Dub [00:00:38] Oh yeah, I would say so. Let's go to Music Video of the Year. You and I are both picking the same one on this one.

Cody [00:00:44] Yes. Wait In The Truck. Yeah.

Dub [00:00:46] Hardy and Lainey Wilson. Let's move on to Vocal Duo of the year. So I went with Dan and Shay for Vocal Duo of the year. And you. You picked somebody different.

Cody [00:00:55] And honestly, out of these I mean, Dan and Shay probably did have the most going on this year, I feel like. But I went with Brothers Osborne, one of our past Guitar Pull artists.

Dub [00:01:04] They've had a pretty big, good little hot streak going when it comes to win in that category. I mean, that's not a bad pick vocal group of the year. I went with Old Dominion.

Cody [00:01:12] This one was tough for me because I really had a hard time picking it. But I went with our Guitar Pull stars this year, Lady A.

Dub [00:01:20] I mean, they did kind of make a comeback so far. And this year they got new they got new music out there. I would I, look if Old Dominion doesn't win, I really hope Lady A can pull this one out. Male vocalist of the year. I went with Luke Combs.

Cody [00:01:33] That's a good pick. But I had to go with Morgan Wallen because, I mean, wow, what a year he's had.

Dub [00:01:38] Well, absolutely. And the only reason why I picked, well, you'll see in a minute why I picked Luke Combs, female vocalist of the year. You and I both went with the same pick on this one.

Cody [00:01:47] Yeah. Had to go with Lainey Wilson out of these. I mean, Ashley McBryde was a close second.

Dub [00:01:52] Yeah. So now let's go to Song of the Year, and this one goes to the writer. I went with Next Thing You Know, because I think that was just a huge, very well-written song for Jordan Davis.

Cody [00:02:03] I had to go with a Lainey song on this one. Heart Like a Truck.

Dub [00:02:06] Yeah. Also a great song. There's a lot of good songs in this category. Album of the year. You and I both picked the same one because, I mean, it was the pretty much the biggest one of the year.

Cody [00:02:14] Huge. One Thing At A Time.

Dub [00:02:16] Morgan Wallen. And Single of the Year. This is the one that goes to the artist. I went with Fast Car Luke Combs because this song has been huge. It's been everywhere this year.

Cody [00:02:24] As much as I love that song, I went with Jelly Roll, Need A Favor.

Dub [00:02:29] That's not a bad pick. And you and I both went with the same pick for Entertainer of the Year, and we both picked Morgan Wallen. And so that's why I picked Luke Combs on Male vocalist. Because usually the same artist doesn't win. If they win female vocalist or male vocalist, they don't win Entertainer. So I was like, one of the two is going to win. Male Vocalist, one of the two is going to win Entertainer. So I'll wait on... Male vocalist...

Cody [00:02:49] Morgan for Entertainer of the year. And for Entertainer of the Year, Jason Aldean even is rooting for Morgan Wallen. I read where he was like, you know, it's really his time. Like he's had a lot this year and I'm going Morgan Wallen for a lot of different categories.

Dub [00:03:04] Yeah, for sure. There's our picks for the CMAs tonight. Follow along with us and see how many we got right and how many we got wrong.

The CMA's Entertainer of the Year award is one of the biggest honors an artist can get in country music, next to being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Country icon Dolly Parton won the award in 1978. 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Willie Nelson won the honor from the CMA in 1979. Other superstars that won the CMA's highest honor were Reba McEntire in 1985 and 1986 and The King of Country Music himself, George Strait, who won Entertainer from the CMA three times, the first in 1989.

The last woman to win the CMA's Entertainer of the Year was Taylor Swift, who won in 2009 and in 2011. Shania Twain won Entertainer of the Year in 1999, and The Chicks (then called The Dixie Chicks) won the honor in 2000. If Lainey or Carrie wins this year, it will be the first female to win Entertainer in twelve years.

This year's Entertainer of the Year nominees from the CMA have all had great years in country music, selling tickets, making records, and entertaining fans all over the world with their own style of country music.

The first person to ever win the CMA Entertainer of the Year award was Eddy Arnold in 1967. Loretta Lynn was the first female to win Entertainer in 1972. Barbara Mandrell was the first person to win the Entertainer of the Year award twice from the CMA in 1980 and 1981.

The CMA Awards on Wednesday (11/8) will be hosted by Peyton Manning and two-time Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan.

As we await the result of who will be the next Entertainer of the Year tomorrow night (11/8) when the CMA Awards will be broadcast live on ABC TV.  We take a look at this year's cream of the crop in country music, the five nominees for 2023 Entertainer of the Year, Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson, Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood, and Morgan Wallen.

Last year, when Luke won the Entertainer of The Year for the second year in a row, he joined an elite group of artists to win the honor twice or more from the CMA, which includes Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, and Kenny Chesney. Having sold out stadiums all over the country and in Australia and Europe in 2023, he has a good chance of winning the trophy for a third time in a row, which has only been done by Chesney. Garth has the most Entertainer wins of all time from the CMA with seven wins, but not three in a row.

While Chris has not won the CMA's Entertainer of the Year, he did win the 2023 Entertainer of the Year honor from the Academy of Country Music in May. When he won, he said he felt he didn't deserve the honor because of all the talent in the category. There's a good chance the CMA will repeat Stapletpn's win for the top honor as he continues to thrive in country music and push the genre to new heights with his songwriting and singing skills, which are hard to match by anyone. His Super Bowl 2023 performance was one of the most talked about National Anthem performances in sports history.

While Entertainer has eluded Carrie for the CMA, she has won the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year three times, in 2009, 2010, and 2020. in 2009, her first win in the category, actor, and country music lover Matthew McConaughey gave out the honor, when Carrie was nominated against Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Keith Urban, and Brad Paisley. Underwood cried, accepting the award for the first time in her career.

Morgan has had numbers for record sales, streams and ticket sales that no one else in country music matched in 2023. He sells out three-night stints at stadiums all over the country on his current "One Thing At A Time." A win for Entertainer for Wallen in 2023 would not be a surprise or an upset of any kind. He could very well be the 2023 CMA's Entertainer of the Year.

If we predicted one of the five nominees to win this year, it would be Lainey Wilson. Her year in country music has been epic, and she has worked her tail off to be on top of country music today. Some artists through the years are award nominees, and some are winners; according to the award shows so far in the last few years, Lainey is a winner.

She told us of getting the Entertainer nod so early in her success, "To be considered for Entertainer of the Year, it's like, 'Oh my gosh, how did that happen?' But when you think about the amount of shows that we have played this year and last year, we have played a lot. We started playing a club tour at the top of the year. We went out with Luke Combs and did a stadium tour. And we are out on the road with HARDY right now. Every fair and festival in between, we have done it, so with the amount of people we have entertained, then I guess it's not that crazy."