2026 ACM Awards Nominations Snubs & Surprises

The four top nominees are all women: Megan Moroney leads with nine, followed by Miranda Lambert with eight and Ella Langley and Lainey Wilson with seven each. It’s fitting because women have really led the charts and the headlines this year with record-breaking feats from Moroney and Langley. Maybe one day such achievements will lead to women not struggling so much at terrestrial radio, but, in the meantime, it’s a wonderful achievement that all the nominated women deserve. 

LOCASH keeps going strong and keeps being ignored by ACM voters, who seem allergic to nominating the duo of Chris Lucas and Preston Brust, despite the fact that they continue having hits, including the two-week 2025 Country Airplay No. 1 “Hometown Home.” Their only duo of the year nomination came in 2022. 

Faith has become a critical darling with Cherry Valley, which appeared on many year-end best-of lists (including Billboard’s 10 Best Country Albums of 2025, where it landed at No. 3), but no album or tracks from the project have cracked any U.S. Billboard charts. The awareness Thursday’s ACM album of the year nomination will bring Faith and the LP will, hopefully, change that. (It is the only nomination Faith received, which is also a little bit of a snub.) 

It’s inscrutable why some acts are in good favor with ACM voters and then they fall out, but Church hasn’t received a regular ACM Awards nomination since 2021 (through he received the Icon Award at the separate ACM Honors this past August). His daring 2025 album, Evangeline Vs. The Machine, may have been too challenging for some, but, like Faith’s Cherry Valley, it was seen as one of the top albums of 2025 by many, yet he remained un-nominated again this year. 

Moroney makes her first entrance into the coveted entertainer of the year category this year, marking a major new career milestone. The recognition comes shortly after Moroney’s album Cloud 9 became her first to debut atop the all-genre Billboard 200. She’s also the most nominated artist leading up to this year’s ACM Awards, with nine total nominations. Just two years ago, Moroney earned her first ACM Award for new female artist of the year. This slate of nominations reflects just how swiftly her career has skyrocketed.

Wilson earned his first ACM Awards nomination this year, picking up a visual media of the year nomination for the Tim Cofield-produced and directed “Cuckoo.” That is a solid first nomination. Still, given that he’s quickly become an industry favorite thanks to his 2023 album Son of Dad, and his 2025 song releases including “Gary” and his Shaboozey collaboration “Took a Walk,” it would have been nice to see Wilson receive some ACMs love in additional categories.

Married Canadian-American duo MacKenzie Porter and Jake Etheridge snagged a coveted spot in the duo of the year category, possibly taking the place of The War and Treaty, who had been nominated the past three years. They are still considered a brand-new act in the U.S., but there weren’t enough qualified entries for new duo or group this year, so it seems they slid into this category instead. 

Parmalee’s song “Cowgirl” spent four weeks atop the Billboard Country Airplay chart, over the end of 2025 into 2026, marking the longest-running No. 1 from a group with three or more members in nearly 14 years. Parmalee earned a new vocal duo/group of the year nomination in 2015, but despite headlining tours and earning five total No. 1 Country Airplay hits, Parmalee continues to be locked out when it comes to earning a nomination for ACM group of the year.

We’re quite sure when Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg wrote “Over the Rainbow” for The Wizard of Oz, receiving an ACM nomination for song of the year never crossed their minds — in part because the Academy of Country Music, much less the ACM Awards, had not been created yet. Yet through the interpolation of the classic in Lainey Wilson’s “Somewhere Over Laredo,” here the late, great songwriters are. 

Both Dickerson and Matthew earned multi-week Country Airplay No. 1s over the past year. Matthew’s “Darlin’” spent three weeks at the chart’s pinnacle, while Dickerson’s “Happen to Me” spent two weeks in the top spot. In previous years, Dickerson earned ACM nods in categories including song of the year and new male artist of the year, while Matthew has yet to earn an ACM Awards nomination.

After previously earning ACM Award wins for new male artist of the year and visual media of the year, Texas native McCollum levels up, earning his first album of the year nomination for his 2025 self-titled project. Produced by Frank Liddell and Eric Masse, the album spurred songs including the Country Airplay top five hit “What Kinda Man.”