Luke Combs very humbly spoke about his CMA Entertainer Of The Year nomination and he said “being in the conversation for Entertainer of the Year for the first time is such a huge deal” to him as he still has trouble fathoming that he is even seated at a table with Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban and Eric Church, people who he says he views as “so far above” him in the industry but he calls it a “great honor.”
The “Forever After All” singer continued to saying “getting 6 CMA nominations is pretty insane. 2 in the same category is just unbelievable.”
Combs says if he does end up taking home the CMA Award for Entertainer Of The Year, he will still wonder “Well, maybe it was me, but maybe it was someone else.” When speaking on someone else, he meant Garth Brooks, who removed himself from the category via a virtual press conference earlier this year where he respectfully withdrew his name from future nods in the category. Brooks’ won his seventh CMA Entertainer of the Year Award in 2019 and following backlash of fans saying Carrie Underwood deserved the award last year, it prompted Brooks’ decision to remove himself.
“It made winning CMA Entertainer of the Year not that much fun,” said Brooks following the backlash.
On September 1, The Country Music Association announced the nominees for the award show and Brooks request was certainty granted as he was not included in the sought after category this year. This year’s nominees are Eric Church, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.
In a recent interview with Elaina Smith of Nights With Elaina, Combs explained that although he understands Brooks’ decision “for sure,” he still wonders.
“I understand Garth’s move for sure,” Combs explained. “But then I also think to myself, when you’re in that conversation for Entertainer of the Year, I have this competitive nature, I don’t just want to be the best, I want to beat the best, too. So I don’t want to sit at home and go, ‘Well, maybe it was me, but maybe it was somebody else.’”
In addition to his nomination for Entertainer of the Year, The country superstar is also nominated 5 other times including Male Vocalist of the Year, Single of the Year (“Beer Never Broke My Heart”), Album of the Year (What You See Is What You Get), Song of the Year (“Even Though I’m Leaving”) and Song of the Year (“I Hope You’re Happy Now”).
Make sure you tune in to the annual CMA Awards on November 11 at 8p.m. EST on ABC to see who wins.
