Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Keith Urban is up for Entertainer of the Year the 2017 CMA Awards in November.

Lauren Alaina actually helped announce the awards and wound up being nominated herself, in the best new artist category.

That makes little sense, of course, because after finishing as runner-up on Season 10 of American Idol Lauren released a well-received debut album (“Wildflower”) way back in 2011.

But she’s enjoyed a resurgence with the success of her “Road Less Traveled” single and finds herself competing for CMA’s best new artist honors alongside Luke Combs, Old Dominion, Jon Pardi and Brett Young.

Carrie, of course, is up for female vocalist of the year, an award she won in 2016, breaking a string of six straight victories by Miranda Lambert in that category. Carrie also took female vocalist of the year honors in 2006, 2007 and 2007.

Besides Carrie and Miranda, this year’s nominees are Kelsea Ballerini, Reba McEntire and Maren Morris.

Keith Urban, meanwhile, is up for four honors. He’ll be competing for the night’s biggest award — entertainer of the year — against Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Eric Church and Chris Stapleton.

Keith won entertainer of the year honors in 2005 and was male vocalist of the year in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

This year, his competition for top male vocalist includes Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Thomas Rhett and
Chris Stapleton.

Keith’s other nominations include:

* Music Video of the Year — “Blue Ain’t Your Color” by Keith Urban. Other nominees — “Better Man” by Little Big Town, “Craving You” by Thomas Rhett (featuring Maren Morris), “It Ain’t My Fault” by Brothers Osborne and “Vice” by Miranda Lambert

* Single of the Year — “Blue Ain’t Your Color” by Keith Urban. Other nominees — “Better Man” by Little Big Town, “Body Like a Back Road” by Sam Hunt, “Dirt on My Boots” by Jon Pardi and “Tin Man” by Miranda Lambert.

For the complete list of 2017 nominees, head here. As usual, Brad Paisley and Carrie will host the event, to be televised 8 p.m. Nov. 8 on NBC.