Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Zac Brown Band have topped the nominations for the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which were announced by Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton last night.
Lady Antebellum scored seven nominations. While Lambert and Underwood received six each nominations in five categories. Zac Brown also scored six nominations - four as a member of the Zac Brown Band and another two as the group's producer.
Following for CMA Awards and Grammy success, Taylor Swift received a total of five nominations, including her first Entertainer of the Year nomination.
Under the ACM tally, artists receive multiple nominations in certain categories if they wrote the song or produced the recording.
Kenny Chesney's nominations include entertainer of the year (which he has already won four times) and top male vocalist. Brad Paisley is also nominated for the fan voted Entertainer of the Year and top male vocalist. His American Saturday Night is nominated for album of the year, and "Welcome to the Future" is competing for video of the year.
The other entertainer of the year nominees are Toby Keith, George Strait and Australia's Keith Urban. The three categories for newcomers - top new solo vocalist, vocal group and vocal duo - will also be opened up to fan voting. The winner in each of those three categories will then move on to compete for overall top new artist, another fan-voted category.
Reba McEntire will host the show live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas USA on April 18.