CMA Awards: Lainey Wilson is first female Entertainer of the Year since Taylor Swift in 2011

Well that was unexpected, at least according to Gold Derby’s racetrack odds. At the 2023 Country Music Association Awards, Lainey Wilson ended the night by winning Entertainer of the Year. We’d ranked her last based on the combined predictions of Gold Derby users. Overall she dominated the awards with five wins out of her nine nominations. Check out the complete list of winners here.

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The CMAs rarely reward an artist as new as Wilson with their top honor. She just won New Artist of the Year in 2022 and has now already won the trifecta of New Artist, Female Vocalist, and Entertainer of the Year in the span of just two years. And let’s be frank, the CMAs also don’t award women very often. Wilson is the first female champ since Taylor Swift won for the second time way back in 2011. Also counting The Chicks, who prevailed in 2000, Wilson is now just the third female act to win Entertainer of the Year this century.

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In addition to Entertainer, Wilson won Female Vocalist of the Year for the second year in a row. She also claimed Album of the Year for “Bell Bottom Country”; Musical Event of the Year for “Wait in the Truck,” her collaboration with Hardy; and Music Video of the Year for “Wait in the Truck.” The only awards she lost were Single of the Year and Song of the Year, both of which went to Luke Combs‘s cover of Tracy Chapman‘s classic “Fast Car.” The Song of the Year prize when to Chapman herself — 35 years after she originally released the song back in 1988. What did you think of Wednesday night’s CMA Award winners?

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