Many of the biggest names in country music gathered at Wednesday night’s (November 8) CMA Awards. However, one A-list performer was curiously absent. Carrie Underwood seems to have skipped the show.
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No one mentioned Underwood’s absence during the broadcast. In fact, her name didn’t come up at all except when called in the EOTY category. However, her fans noticed the absence. After Lainey Wilson won Entertainer of the Year, they took to social media in droves to call out the Country Music Association. In their collective opinion, the CMA snubbed the “Jesus Take the Wheel” singer. According to them, this isn’t the first time.
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This year marked Underwood’s sixth Entertainer of the Year Award nomination. She was also up for the prestigious award in 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. However, she has never taken home the big prize at the CMA Awards.
One angry fan tweeted at the CMA saying, in part, “Lainey won EoTY only to show your disrespect to Carrie.” Another fan commented that Underwood skipped Country Music’s Biggest Night because “She knows her worth.”
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Another fan opined that Wilson’s win was a “slap in the face to every male and female country artist who have been in the industry years” and that Underwood is long overdue for an Entertainer of the Year win.
The rage from Underwood’s fans didn’t start last night. They also ripped into the Country Music Association in September when the nominations came out. Underwood only received the nomination for Entertainer of the Year. They wanted to know why she wasn’t also in the Female Vocalist of the Year category.
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One fan tweeted, “the BIGGEST [sic] woman in the genre is missing from the female category WTAF are these voters doing,” about the nominees list. Another summed up the group’s sentiments in a single sentence. “Stop snubbing Carrie Underwood,” they stated.
Underwood took home Female Vocalist of the Year at her first CMA Awards in 2006. This is the first year since 2006 that she didn’t receive a nomination in the category. She went on to win the award five times, the last time coming in 2018. That was also the last time Underwood took home a trophy from the CMA Awards.
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