Welcome back to Country Music 4 Ever! My initial plan for today was to recap the CMA Awards from last night, but after an award shocked everyone, including the winner, I now have to focus on one award today.

For the first time since 2006, Brooks & Dunn took home the award for “Vocal Duo of the Year.” This is their fifteenth win in the category.

I don’t think anyone was expecting them to win this award. I thought for sure Dan & Shay were going to win because they have had the most success on country radio this year out of all the nominees.

On the CMA Awards’ website, they tell you the criteria for every award. They say the duo of the year award is based on the musical performance of the duo as a unit on a country single or album release, as well as their overall contribution to country music over the past year.

After looking over Brooks & Dunn’s discography, I discovered they have not released a single to country radio since their re-recording of “Brand New Man” with Luke Combs in 2019. They just put out their first new album in five years just five days before the CMA Awards. The album, however, was just remakes of their hits called “Reboot II,” the follow-up to their 2019 album, “Reboot.”

It’s hard for me to believe an album released just five days prior to the awards would’ve made that huge of an impact in country music for them to win this award.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Brooks & Dunn, and I’m happy their still winning awards at this stage in their career, but it doesn’t seem right though.

I’d love to hear your opinion on this. Thanks for reading. I’ll be back soon!