When the 2026 CMA Awards nominations were announced on Thursday (Sept. 10), Ella Langley became just the eighth artist in CMA history to land two single of the year nominations in the same year. Interestingly, the first five times this happened, it involved male artists. The last three times, it has involved female artists.
Langley is nominated both as artist and co-producer of her hits “Choosin’ Texas” and “Be Her.” She co-produced both hits with Miranda Lambert and Ben West.
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The other nominees in the category are Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” (which she co-produced with Jack Antonoff), Lainey Wilson’s “Somewhere Over Laredo” (produced by Jay Joyce) and Cody Johnson’s “The Fall” (produced by Trent Willmon).
This marks the first time in CMA history that female artists have accounted for four of the five nominees for single of the year.
In three of the seven previous cases where an artist had two single of the year nominations in the same year, that artist won with one of their nominated hits. In the four others, they lost to someone else. So, there’s no strong evidence that an artist with two nominations will split their votes, though many believe such a phenomenon exists.
Here are the eight times in CMA Awards history that one artist had two singles vying for single of the year. We also show you who won that year. Who will win this year? We’ll find out on Nov. 18, when the 60th annual CMA Awards are presented at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.