Ella Langley led the CMA Awards 2026 nominations with nine nods. That total tied the record for the most nominations in one year by a female artist, and it landed as the category picture widened around her rather than breaking open around a single front-runner.
“Female artists account for four of the five nominees for single of the year for the first time in CMA history.” That line from Billboard captures the bigger shift inside the 60th annual CMA Awards: this is not just a Langley story, but a year when the single of the year race tilts hard toward women.
Langley, Lambert and Musgraves
Langley was nominated for both “Choosin' Texas” and “Be Her,” and “Choosin' Texas” was the only work nominated for single, song and music video of the year. She also landed in entertainer of the year, a ballot that included Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton, and Stephen Wilson Jr., which puts her in the same top-tier conversation as the men who split the year’s biggest artist prize.
Miranda Lambert received seven nominations, while Kacey Musgraves and Ben West each received five. Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and Stephen Wilson Jr. each received four, and Dave Clauss, Luke Combs and Wilson each received three. The spread shows how concentrated the top of the field is: Langley is ahead, but the chase is crowded enough that no one is running away with the ceremony.
Single of the year records
Four of the five single of the year nominees are female artists, the first time that has happened in CMA history. Langley joined Taylor Swift with “I Knew It, I Knew You” and Stephen Wilson Jr. with “Somewhere Over Laredo” among the nominees, while Cody Johnson’s “The Fall” was the only single by a male artist in the category.
Langley’s two nominations in single of the year made her the eighth artist in CMA history to earn two bids in the same year in that category. She is the first to do it since Lainey Wilson in 2023, which gives her lead a specific kind of weight: it is not just volume, but overlap inside one of the night’s most watched fields.
Records behind nine
Nine nominations tied the record for the most nods in a year by a female artist. Miranda Lambert first set that mark in 2010, matched it in 2014, and Lainey Wilson equaled it in 2023. Langley now sits in that same line, even though the all-time record for nominations in one year remains 10, set by Alan Jackson in 2002.
Miranda Lambert also reached her 19th female vocalist of the year nomination, passing Reba McEntire’s 18 from 1983 to 2017. Shane McAnally’s 11th song of the year nomination moved him past Alan Jackson for the most in that category, and Jay Joyce earned his 14th single of the year nomination as a producer. The numbers show a field that rewards repeat winners and repeat voters, not just one-off momentum.
What Langley carries forward
The practical read on CMA Awards 2026 is simple: Langley goes into the 60th annual CMA Awards with the most nominations and one of the clearest routes to a big night. The ceremony will answer whether nine nods turn into wins, but the nomination sheet already tells the industry something firmer — Langley has moved from a breakout name into the center of the year’s award race.
