Welcome back to Country Music 4 Ever! The CMA Award nominations were recently announced. Overall, it’s a pretty good list. Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney, and Ella Langley tied for the most nominated artists with six nominations each. However, there are two categories that have kind of felt like a joke for a while now. Those categories are Group of the Year and Duo of the Year.

The problem with these categories is that no one really qualifies, but somehow each year they manage to find five groups and duos to fill the categories. What I mean by that is none of these groups and duos have had a number one song this year, and very few have even released an album. However, some of them have been out on the road touring this year, but is that really enough to earn a nomination at the biggest country music award show of the year? I really don’t think it is.

Let’s start with the Duo of the Year category. This year's nominees are Brooks & Dunn, Brothers Osborne, Dan + Shay, Maddie & Tae, and The War and Treaty.

None of these duos have released a full-length album in 2025; however, Brothers Osborne did release an EP called “High Times and Low Tides” in June. As far as radio singles, Dan + Shay released “Always Gonna Be,” and Maddie and Tae released “Kissing Cowboys,” “Drunk Girls in Bathrooms,” and “Chasing Babies and Raising Dreams,” but none of these singles charted.

The only duo to have a number one country song this year was Locash with “Hometown Home,” and they were completely ignored by the CMA.

Moving on to Group of the Year. The nominees are Lady A, Little Big Town, Old Dominion, Rascal Flatts, and The Red Clay Strays. Old Dominion released their album “Barbara” this year, and Rascal Flatts released “Life is a Highway: Refueled Duets” this year as well. Old Dominion and Rascal Flatts were also the only groups out of these five to release radio singles. 

Parmalee was the only group in 2024 or 2025 to hit the number one spot on country radio and was completely ignored, just like Locash. So, my question is, if there are current duos and groups releasing hit songs on country radio, why are they shut out of the industry's top award show? The initial idea of the CMA Awards was to celebrate the best current country artists and songs on the radio, so how have we gotten so far from that idea?

A fun fact is that Old Dominion is the most-awarded artist in the Group of the Year category with seven wins. They have won every year since 2018. Nothing against Old Dominion; I think they are a very talented band with awesome music, but I honestly think they win this category by default. I don’t feel any of the other groups are too relevant anymore, so that’s why Old Dominion always wins. There’s no competition in this category.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these categories. Thanks for reading, I’ll be back soon!