Chris Young, Walker Hayes, Miranda Lambert + Chris Stapleton lead 2022 ACM Awards nominees

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ABC

Chris Young is a frontrunner after the 2022 ACM Awards nominees were announced Thursday morning. He earned the most nominations of any artist, thanks largely to his mega-hit duet with Kane Brown, “Famous Friends.”

Chris earned seven mentions in total over four categories. He’s double-nominated in three of those, due to his role as both a producer and artist on the single and its album, also titled Famous Friends. He’s a bit of a dark horse at the awards show, having never won an ACM trophy in the past.

Behind Chris, the most-nominated artists are Walker Hayes, Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton, who are tied for second place, with five mentions apiece. Carrie Underwood, Carly Pearce and Jordan Davis also made a splash on the nominees list, coming in with four nods each.

Also scoring four nods was Morgan Wallen, who returns to the awards show pool after having been disqualified at the ACMs in 2021. His removal from consideration came after video footage emerged showing Morgan yelling a racist slur; he was also barred from all the other major awards shows that year.

But in 2022, the ACMs seem to be welcoming Morgan back. He’s nominated for Male Artist of the Year, also scoring a mention in the Album of the Year category, and two nods for Song of the Year, as both an artist and songwriter on his nominated “7 Summers.”

The 2022 ACMs will stream on Amazon Prime Video on March 7 at 8 p.m. EST.

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