The 10 Most-Nominated People at the 2026 CMA Awards

Bea, hosting, with a confession: my favourite award-show list isn't the winners. It's this one — the ballot itself, counted. Remy did the counting from the official nominees list, name by name, credit by credit, and the top of it isn't the surprise. The bottom of it is. There's a mix engineer in this top ten, and he earned his seat. Remy, rank them.

The countdown

10. Dave Clauss — 3 nominations (mix engineer: Album of the Year, Dandelion; Single of the Year, "Be Her" and "Choosin' Texas")

Here's Remy's favourite line on the whole ballot. Clauss didn't sing a note that's up for anything — he mixed the record everybody else is nominated for. His name sits on Ella Langley's album and on both of her Single of the Year entries, which means the most-nominated artist at this show needed this man's ears on every one of her biggest swings. Award shows love a face. The ballot, bless it, also loves the person behind the glass.

9. Luke Combs — 3 nominations (Entertainer of the Year; Male Vocalist of the Year; Album of the Year, The Way I Am)

Only three — and it still might be his night, because two of them are the two biggest rooms in the building. Combs is one of five Entertainer nominees, he's back in Male Vocalist, and The Way I Am carries his name as artist and as one of its producers. Some artists collect nominations like ticket stubs. Combs just keeps booking the categories that end the show.

8. Lainey Wilson — 3 nominations (Entertainer of the Year; Female Vocalist of the Year; Single of the Year, "Somewhere Over Laredo")

The host is also a contender, for the third straight year of hosting. Wilson's up for Entertainer — an award she's already holding as the reigning winner — plus Female Vocalist and a Single nod for "Somewhere Over Laredo." If she wins the last envelope of the night, she'll have to hand the trophy to herself, and honestly, television doesn't get better than that sentence.

7. Cody Johnson — 4 nominations (Entertainer of the Year; Male Vocalist of the Year; Single of the Year and Music Video of the Year, "The Fall")

Johnson's four all run through one song and one presence. "The Fall" does double duty in Single and Video, and around it sit Entertainer and Male Vocalist — the title he's defending as the reigning Male Vocalist of the Year. Four nominations, no filler. That's a concentrated ballot from a man who treats every stage like a rodeo gate's about to open.

6. Chris Stapleton — 4 nominations (Entertainer of the Year; Male Vocalist of the Year; Musical Event of the Year, "A Song To Sing"; Music Video of the Year, "White Horse")

Stapleton's four stretch across every way a person can be on this ballot: as a solo artist, as half of a duet — "A Song To Sing," with Miranda Lambert — and as the face of "White Horse" in Video. He's been the room's favourite voice for a decade, and the ballot still can't find a corner of the night to leave him out of.

5. Stephen Wilson Jr. — 4 nominations (Male Vocalist of the Year; New Artist of the Year; Song of the Year and Music Video of the Year, "Gary")

Last year he had one nomination and stole the show's heart with a performance people are still talking about. This year he's got four, and the centre of them is "Gary" — a song he wrote alone, up for Song of the Year, with its video up too. Male Vocalist and New Artist in the same year is a rare double: the ballot's saying he's brand new and already one of the best singers in the format, in the same breath.

4. Kacey Musgraves — 5 nominations (Album of the Year, Middle of Nowhere; Female Vocalist of the Year; Song of the Year, "Dry Spell"; Musical Event of the Year, "Horses and Divorces"; Music Video of the Year, "Dry Spell")

Musgraves' five cover the whole craft: the album, the voice, the writing, the duet, the video. "Dry Spell" counts twice, Middle of Nowhere anchors the Album race, and "Horses and Divorces" pairs her with Lambert — two of this top ten sharing one nomination and somehow both getting stronger from it. She doesn't chase the ballot. The ballot keeps wandering over to where she's standing.

3. Ben West — 5 nominations (producer: Single of the Year, "Be Her" and "Choosin' Texas"; Album of the Year, Dandelion; Musical Event of the Year, "I Can't Love You Anymore" and "If I Don't Leave I'm Gonna Stay")

And here's the name the television cameras won't find, tied with Musgraves at five. West produced both of Langley's Single of the Year entries, co-produced her album, and produced two of the five Musical Event nominees for two different pairs of artists. He's also a first-time CMA nominee this year — some debut. When they write the story of this ballot, the byline under half the big songs is his job title.

2. Miranda Lambert — 7 nominations (Female Vocalist of the Year; Single of the Year twice, as producer of "Be Her" and "Choosin' Texas"; Album of the Year, as a producer of Dandelion; Song of the Year, as a co-writer of "Choosin' Texas"; Musical Event of the Year twice, "A Song To Sing" and "Horses and Divorces")

Now the history. Lambert's seven this year lift her career total to 70 CMA nominations — the most by any female artist in the show's history — and look at how she earned this year's batch: mostly standing next to the No. 1 name on this list, as Langley's co-producer and co-writer. It's her 19th nomination for Female Vocalist, too. Legends aren't supposed to still be accumulating at this speed. Lambert's out here lapping the record book while producing the future's records at the same time.

1. Ella Langley — 9 nominations (Entertainer of the Year; Album of the Year, Dandelion; Female Vocalist of the Year; Single of the Year twice, "Be Her" and "Choosin' Texas"; Song of the Year twice, as a co-writer of both; Musical Event of the Year, "I Can't Love You Anymore"; Music Video of the Year, "Choosin' Texas")

Nine. The most of anyone at the 60th CMAs, and it's not one hot song doing all the work — she's nominated as a singer, a writer, a producer, a duet partner and a video director, with two entries in two different categories. She took home three CMA Awards last year; this year she arrives as the ballot itself. Lambert's story is the career. Langley's is the year. On November 18, they share a stage, a producer credit and most of a scoreboard — and that's country music in 2026, handing itself from one pair of hands to the other without dropping a thing.

Bea, closing the list. Notice what the counting proved: three of this top ten never stand at a microphone on the night — a producer, a mix engineer, a songwriter's hand inside other people's hits — and the ballot put them here anyway, because the CMA credits the work, not the spotlight. That's the list. Winners on November 18; we'll be counting those too.

Counted name by name from the Country Music Association's official nominees list; counts confirmed against The Tennessean's count of the same ballot; career-record colour from Pollstar's performers announcement. All opened in full, Nov. 5, 2026.