As 2024 CMA Awards’ First-Round Voting Opens Today, Here Are 11 Storylines We’ll Be Watching

If you’re a voting member in good standing of the Country Music Association, check your email today, Monday (July 8). You should find your nomination ballot to vote in the first round for the 58th annual CMA Awards.

For the rest of us, the countdown begins to what is always one of the year’s most entertaining awards shows.

This year, there’s particular suspense in several categories. Will Beyoncé receive CMA nominations for her Cowboy Carter album? Will Lainey Wilson become the first woman in more than 40 years to win back-to-back awards for entertainer of the year? Will Morgan Wallen win his first CMA Award since he was crowned new artist of the year four years ago?

We’ll take a look at those and other questions, but first, some details. The eligibility period for the 2024 CMA Awards is July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. That means such high-profile albums as Zach Bryan’s just-released The Great American Bar Scene and a pair of upcoming releases –Wilson’s Whirlwind and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion – won’t be eligible until next year.

Voting for the nomination ballot opens today and closes Wednesday, July 17. A second ballot will be emailed to CMA members on Tuesday, Aug. 6. Voting for that ballot closes Tuesday, Aug. 20. The final nominees in each of 12 categories will be announced later this summer.

Winners will be determined in a third and final round of voting that extends from Tuesday, Oct. 1 through Tuesday, Oct. 29. The 58th annual CMA Awards will be held in Nashville in November. The CMA has yet to announce the show’s host. Luke Bryan has hosted the last three years, the last two in tandem with Peyton Manning.

Here are 11 storylines we’ll be following with particular interest this year.