Love ya Luke, but gonna have to disagree with you on this one.
We're just a few days away from the Academy of Country Music Awards (I know, you can barely contain your excitement) so once again we're going to be treated to "special appearances" from pop stars, rappers, athletes, movie stars, and anybody else that organizers think will be able to help their sagging ratings.
All of the country music awards shows have gotten pretty bad in recent years (obviously) but the ACM Awards always seems to be worse than the CMA Awards when it comes to head-scratching decisions and questionable winners. (Remember back in 2020 when they had two winners for Entertainer of the Year and gave the award to both Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood?)
But Luke Combs is making some head-scratching endorsements himself ahead of this Thursday's awards...
Luke is once again nominated for Entertainer of the Year, alongside Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson.
And honestly, I could make a strong case for 6 out of the 7 of those nominees (including Luke) as being deserving of the win.
Well Luke made his case for the 7th.
During an interview with Taste of Country, Luke was asked who (besides himself) he thought should win Entertainer of the Year, and his answer wasn't what I expected:
"I think Kane Brown. I think that he has never gotten the recognition that I think that he deserves. And I think that he works really hard, and I think that it'd be really cool to see him take it home."
Well that's certainly...a take.
Now, obviously Kane's music isn't my style, but that's not taking anything away from what he's done. Just not my cup of tea.
But when you look at who he's going up against, it's hard to argue that Kane is more deserving than the others in the category with him.
Morgan Wallen is pretty undeniably the biggest country artist in the world right now, breaking all kinds of records not only with his music but with his massive One Night At A Time tour. Of course I don't expect him to win because I think voters will hold his "off-the-field" issues against him, but it's hard to deny what he's accomplishing right now.
Lainey and Jelly Roll had two of the biggest years of any country artist, blowing up and headlining sold-out arena tours while also stepping up as leaders of the genre. Either one of them would be more than deserving of the win.
Cody Johnson not only released a double album and scored his second #1 hit at country radio, but he's also drawing massive arena crowds despite not being pushed as hard at radio as some of the artists he's nominated against. Doing more with less and doing it the right way sounds like Entertainer of the Year stuff to me.
Chris Stapleton is always in the conversation for Entertainer of the Year at any awards show, and his 2023 album Higher along with his tour alongside George Strait prove exactly why he's deserving of the title.
And there's not much to say about Luke Combs. He's a CMA Award winner for Entertainer of the Year already, he's one of the best ambassadors for country music in the world right now, he's the face of the genre with his sold-out stadium tour and the success of his latest album Gettin' Old, and his "Fast Car" cover was one of the biggest songs of the entire year. Hell, he's deserving of the award just for his performance of the song with Tracy Chapman at the Grammy Awards earlier this year - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
But Kane Brown? There's no doubt he works hard - you have to if you want to have success in country music - but so do all the other nominees. He's had a couple of #1 hits over the past year, but one of those was a knockoff of "In The Air Tonight." He just dropped another single with Marshmello that really hasn't gotten much buzz, but other than that he hasn't released an album in the last year. And while he's on an arena tour, so are all of the other nominees (at least the ones who aren't playing stadiums).
What sets Kane apart from any of the other nominees? I'm honestly not sure.
Well regardless of my opinion, sounds like Luke is rooting for Kane to take home the trophy this year.
And honestly with some of the terrible winners we've seen in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if he doess.-----------------------------------
By: Aaron Ryan
Title: Luke Combs Says Kane Brown Should Win Entertainer Of The Year At The ACM Awards
Sourced From: www.whiskeyriff.com/2024/05/13/luke-combs-says-kane-brown-should-win-entertainer-of-the-year-at-the-acm-awards/
Published Date: Mon, 13 May 2024 16:53:22 +0000
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