ACM Awards predictions: Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde and Cody Johnson tussle in Single of the Year rematch

The race for Single of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards looks like it’s between two songs that just won Grammy Awards and also competed against each other at last year’s Country Music Association Awards: “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” by Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde and “Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson. That’s according to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users. Do you agree that one of those two will come out on top?

As of this writing “Til You Can’t” is actually the front-runner to win Single of the Year. It gets leading odds of 6/1 with support from 16 of the Top 24 Users who got the highest scores predicting last year’s ACM Awards winners and 13 of the All-Star Top 24 who had the best scores when you combine the last two years’ ACM results. “Til You Can’t” won the CMA Award last fall for Single of the Year, and it just won the Grammy for Best Country Song earlier this year, but the Grammy didn’t go to Johnson himself since the song was penned by Ben Stennis and Matt Rogers. Johnson would get to share in this honor, though.

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“Never Wanted to Be That Girl” has also been lauded by the industry. The duet won Musical Event of the Year at the 2022 CMAs, and though it lost Single of the Year to “Til You Can’t” that night, Pearce and McBryde later claimed the Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for it. Now they rank second in our ACM forecasts, but the race is so close that they also get 6/1 odds of winning with the backing of six Top Users and seven All-Stars. “Til You Can’t” was a bigger commercial hit, though, rising into the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Hot Country Songs chart. “Never Wanted” didn’t get nearly as high on either.

But those aren’t the only potential outcomes. Out Top Users and All-Stars also warn Kane Brown and his wife Katelyn Brown could prevail for “Thank God” following their CMT Music Award victory for Video of the Year. Those Top Users also say to count out Lainey Wilson‘s “Heart Like a Truck” or Cole Swindell‘s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” either. So this may be one of the most wide open categories at these awards.

PREDICTthe ACM winners now; change them until May 11

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify music chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

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