Artists With the Most CMA Awards
When the 60th annual Country Music Awards are presented at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday (Nov. 18), Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson, Brooks & Dunn and Tim McGraw could move up the leaderboard of the all-time winners in the show’s history.
Lambert is nominated for seven awards, including female vocalist of the year; musical event of the year for separate collabs with Stapleton and Kacey Musgraves; and four awards for writing and producing music by Ella Langley.
Stapleton is nominated for four awards – entertainer of the year, male vocalist of the year, music video of the year for “White Horse” and musical event of the year for the aforementioned collab with Lambert.
Wilson is nominated for three awards – entertainer of the year, female vocalist of the year and single of the year for “Somewhere Over Laredo.”
Brooks & Dunn is nominated for one award (vocal duo of the year), as is McGraw (musical event of the year for a collab with HARDY, Eric Church and Morgan Wallen).
Thirteen artists have won 11 or more CMA Awards in competition. Here is a complete list. This list doesn’t count honorary awards. Following the lead of the official CMA list of its all-time top winners, we give artists credit for just one win in a category, even if they also produced or co-produced the recording.
We also looked back to see if the acts won new artist of the year (known as the Horizon Award from 1981-2007). As you will see, not all did!
Here’s a complete list of all artists who have won 11 or more CMA Awards. We’ll update this list after Wednesday’s show.
-
Kenny Chesney, 11
Image Credit: Rick Diamond/WireImage Awards span: 2004-21
Categories with most wins: Entertainer of the year and musical event of the year (4 each)
Horizon/new artist?: Nominated in 1999 but lost to Jo Dee Messina.
Entertainer of the year wins: 4 (2004, 2006-08)
Other wins: Album of the year (1), music video of the year (2)
-
Tim McGraw, 11
Awards span: 1997-2013
Category with most wins: Musical event of the year (3)
Horizon/new artist?: Nominated in 1994 but lost to John Michael Montgomery.
Entertainer of the year wins: 1 (2001)
Other wins: Album of the year (2), single of the year (1), male vocalist of the year (2), music video of the year (1), vocal event of the year (1)
-
Blake Shelton, 11
Awards span: 2010-25
Category with most wins: Male vocalist of the year (5)
Horizon/new artist?: Nominated in 2003 but lost to Joe Nichols.
Entertainer of the year wins: 1 (2012)
Other wins: Album of the year (1), single of the year (1), song of the year (1), musical event of the year (2)
-
Keith Urban, 12
Image Credit: Peter Kramer/Getty Images Awards span: 2001-18
Category with most wins: Musical event of the year (4)
Horizon/new artist?: Won in 2001
Entertainer of the year wins: 2 (2005, 2018)
Other wins: Single of the year (1), male vocalist of the year (3), music video of the year (1)
-
Lainey Wilson, 12
Awards span: 2022-25
Category with most wins: Female vocalist of the year (4)
Horizon/new artist?: Won in 2022.
Entertainer of the year wins: 2 (2023, 2025)
Other wins: Album of the year (2), music video of the year (2), musical event of the year (1)
-
Garth Brooks, 14
Awards span: 1990-2019
Category with most wins: Entertainer of the year (7, which is the record in the category)
Horizon/new artist?: Won in 1990
Entertainer of the year wins: 7 (1991-92, 1997-98, 2016-17, 2019)
Other wins: Album of the year (2), single of the year (1), music video of the year (2), vocal event of the year (1)
-
Miranda Lambert, 14
Image Credit: Sara Kauss/WireImage Awards span: 2010-20
Category with most wins: Female vocalist of the year (7, which is the record in the category)
Horizon/new artist?: Nominated in 2005 but lost to Dierks Bentley. Nominated again in 2006 but lost to Carrie Underwood.
Entertainer of the year wins: 0 (6 nods)
Other wins: Album of the year (2), single of the year (1), song of the year (1), music video of the year (2), musical event of the year (1)
Notes: Lambert has the most awards by a female artist, but Lainey Wilson is catching up fast.
-
Brad Paisley, 14
Awards span: 2000-10
Category with most wins: music video of the year (4, which is the record in the category)
Horizon/new artist?: Won in 2000.
Entertainer of the year wins: 1 (2010)
Other wins: Album of the year (1), male vocalist of the year (3), musical event of the year (3), vocal event of the year (1).
-
Alan Jackson, 16
Awards span: 1992-2003
Categories with most wins: entertainer of the year, vocal event of the year (3 each)
Horizon/new artist?: Nominated in 1990 but lost to Garth Brooks.
Entertainer of the year wins: 3 (1995 and 2002-03)
Other wins: Album of the year (2), single of the year (2), song of the year (2), male vocalist of the year (2), music video of the year (2)
-
George Strait, 17
Image Credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images Awards span: 1985-2013
Categories with most wins: Album of the year and male vocalist of the year (5 each). His five wins for album of the year constitute the record in the category.
Horizon/new artist?: Nominated in 1983 but lost to John Anderson.
Entertainer of the year wins: 3 (1989-90 and 2013)
Other wins: Single of the year (2), musical event of the year (1), vocal event of the year (1)
-
Vince Gill, 18
Awards span: 1990-99
Category with most wins: Male vocalist of the year (5)
Horizon/new artist?: Not nominated.
Entertainer of the year wins: 2 (1993-94)
Other wins: Album of the year (2), single of the year (1), song of the year (4), vocal event of the year (4)
-
Chris Stapleton, 19
Awards span: 2015-24
Category with most wins: Male vocalist of the year (8, the record in the category)
Horizon/new artist?: Won in 2015.
Entertainer of the year wins: 0 (9 nods)
Other wins: Album of the year (3), single of the year (3), song of the year (3), music video of the year (1)
Notes: Stapleton has the most wins by a solo artist.
-
Brooks & Dunn, 20
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Awards span: 1992-2025
Category with most wins: Vocal duo of the year (16, the record in the category)
Horizon/new artist?: Nominated in 1992 but lost to Suzy Bogguss.
Entertainer of the year wins: 1 (1996)
Other wins: Album of the year (1), single of the year (1), music video of the year (1)
Notes: Ronnie Dunn won an additional award for co-writing “Believe,” the song of the year winner in 2006, with Craig Wiseman.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.