Haywood, Scott and Kelley

Lady Antebellum. Already hot is now even hotter…up for the most: seven Academy of Country Music Awards!

Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood are next with six nominations, Taylor Swift has 5 and Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley got four in the announcements this week.

The Zac Brown Band and its frontman accepted four nominations and Brown added two individually.

Lady A snagged 5 nominations for the gravity-defying hit “Need You Now,” including individual record, song and video of the year, and is up for top Vocal Group and Album for its debut, “Lady Antebellum.”

Underwood, Chesney, Swift, Paisley, the Zac Brown Band, George Strait, Keith Urban and Toby Keith are nominated for Entertainer of the Year , the biggie given out at the April 18 awards in Las Vegas.

Underwood won EOTY last year and will be the only woman to get it twice in a row if she gets it this year. Ahhh…. but there’s another blonde in the mix that won the CMA back in November that may be a challenger especially since the Entertainer award is Fan voted. No one is bettter with the Fans than Taylor Swift.
The voted award is anyone’s game really as a smart fan club with some internet knowledge could “game” the system and No one would know because the Academy wants the web traffic.

It’s a point Chesney noted last year before he lost the crown.

Other notable Nominees…
Lambert netted her three nominations.

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

• Kenny Chesney
• Toby Keith
• Brad Paisley
• George Strait
• Taylor Swift
• Carrie Underwood
• Keith Urban
• Zac Brown Band

TOP MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

• Kenny Chesney
• Brad Paisley
• Darius Rucker
• George Strait
• Keith Urban

TOP FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

• Miranda Lambert
• Reba McEntire
• Taylor Swift
• Carrie Underwood
• Lee Ann Womack

TOP VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR

• Lady Antebellum
• Little Big Town
• Randy Rogers Band
• Rascal Flatts
• Zac Brown Band

TOP VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR

• Brooks & Dunn
• Joey + Rory
• Montgomery Gentry
• Steel Magnolia
• Sugarland

TOP NEW SOLO VOCALIST OF THE YEAR *

• Luke Bryan
• Jamey Johnson
• Chris Young

TOP NEW VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR *

• Bomshel
• Joey + Rory
• Steel Magnolia

TOP NEW VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR *

• Eli Young Band
• Gloriana
• The Lost Trailers

ALBUM OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company(s)]

• American Saturday Night – Brad Paisley (Arista Nashville) Produced by: Chris DuBois, Frank Rogers
• Lady Antebellum – Lady Antebellum (Capitol Records Nashville) Produced by: Victoria Shaw, Paul Worley
• Play On – Carrie Underwood (19/Arista Nashville) Produced by: Mark Bright “Quitter” Produced by Max Martin & Shellback for Maratone Productions and Mark Bright
• Revolution – Miranda Lambert (Columbia Nashville) Produced by: Frank Liddell, Mike Wrucke
• The Foundation – Zac Brown Band (Southern Ground / Bigger Picture / Atlantic) Produced by: Keith Stegall, Zac Brown

SINGLE RECORD OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company(s)]

• Need You Now – Lady Antebellum (Capitol Records Nashville) Produced by: Lady Antebellum, Paul Worley
• People Are Crazy – Billy Currington (Mercury) Produced by: Carson Chamberlain, Billy Currington
• Red Light – David Nail (MCA Nashville) Produced by: Frank Liddell, Mike Wrucke
• Toes – Zac Brown Band (Southern Ground / Bigger Picture / Atlantic) Produced by: Keith Stegall, Zac Brown
• White Liar – Miranda Lambert (Columbia Nashville) Produced by: Frank Liddell, Mike Wrucke

SONG OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Composer(s)/Publisher(s)/Artist(s)]

• Cowboy Casanova – Carrie Underwood Composers: Mike Elizondo, Brett James, Carrie Underwood Publishers: Brett James Cornelius Music (ASCAP), Carrie Okie Music (BMI), Rincon Ave Music (ASCAP), Stage Three Songs (ASCAP)

• Need You Now – Lady Antebellum Composers: Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott Publishers: EMI Foray Music (BMI), Darth Buddha (ASCAP), Dwhaywood Music (BMI), Hillary Dawn Publishing (SESAC), Radiobullets Publishing (BMI), Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI), Year Of The Dog Music (ASCAP)

• People Are Crazy – Billy Currington Composers: Bobby Braddock, Troy Jones Publishers: Crozier Music Enterprises LLC (BMI), Mighty Nice Music (BMI), Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI), Tiltawhirl Music (BMI)

• White Liar – Miranda Lambert Composers: Natalie Hemby, Miranda Lambert Publishers: Pink Dog Publishing (BMI), Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI), Tiltawhirl Music (BMI)

• You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift Composers: Liz Rose, Taylor Swift Publishers: Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI), Taylor Swift Music (BMI)

VIDEO OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Producer(s)/Director(s)/Artist(s)] (Off Camera Award)

• Boots On – Randy Houser Producer: Eric Welch Director: Eric Welch (Drake footage: Vickie Vaughn)

• Need You Now – Lady Antebellum Producer: Clarke Gallican Director: David McClister

• Welcome To The Future – Brad Paisley Producers: Mark Kalbfeld, Jim Shea, Peter Tilden Director: Jim Shea

• White Liar – Miranda Lambert Producer: Tameron Hedge Director: Chris Hicky

• You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift Producer: Randy Brewer Director: Roman White

VOCAL EVENT OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company] (Off Camera
Award)

• Hillbilly Bone – Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins (Reprise Records / Warner Music Nashville) Producer: Scott Hendricks
• Honky Tonk Stomp – Brooks & Dunn featuring Billy Gibbons (Arista Nashville) Producer: Ronnie Dunn, Terry McBride
• I Told You So – Carrie Underwood featuring Randy Travis (19/Arista Nashville) Producer: Mark Bright
• I’m Alive – Kenny Chesney with Dave Matthews (Blue Chair/BNA) Produced by: Buddy Cannon, Kenny Chesney
• Seeing Stars – Jack Ingram featuring Patty Griffin (Big Machine Records) Produced by: Jack Ingram, Jeremy Stover

And a Grammy... good week.

Hats off (no pun intended for hat act lovers) to Lady Antebellum’s Charles, Dave and Hillary on topping the overall and country album sales charts with 481,000 debut-week sales for the group’s Need You Now. The Nielsen SoundScan total is the biggest debut by a country artist since Taylor Swift’s Fearless bowed with 592,000 units in November 2008.

A large percentage is suspected to attributed to massive downloads of the smash multi week title track. Combined single downloads are figured into the tally. Christmas iTunes cards must’ve helped here. Record breaking January sales.

Dave Tweeted -”We’re Absolutely stunned!”

The band used their weekly webisode to thank the fans — see the brilliant thank you below…