Excitement is building for Sunday’s 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards! Airing live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the star-filled event will offer a blockbuster line-up of performers and presenters, including Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Brooks and Dunn, Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, Kellie Pickler, and Kenny Chesney – who performs not one, but two songs on the show. Kenny will sing his latest smash, “Better as a Memory,” and join George Strait for the first-ever live performance of their hit, “Shiftwork,” nominated as Vocal Event of the Year. Tune-in as the 43rd Annual ACM Awards air on CBS this Sunday (8pm, ET). (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Kenny leads all artists this year with an amazing 11 nominations across eight categories, including Entertainer of the Year – an award he’s won for the past three years! In addition to Entertainer and Vocal Event (for “Shiftwork”), he’s up for Top Male Vocalist, Album of the Year (for Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates), Song, Video and Single Record of the Year (for his number-one smash, “Don’t Blink”), and scored a second Vocal Event nod for “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” with Tim McGraw and Tracy Lawrence. Wins for Vocal Event (for “Shiftwork”), or for Album or Single would actually earn Kenny double awards – one as artist and one as producer! (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Reigning ACM Top New Female Vocalist Miranda Lambert is a most-nominated female with three nods, vying for Top Female Vocalist, Single Record of the Year (for her hit, “Famous in a Small Town”), and – especially impressive for her second album – Miranda earned an Album of the Year nomination for her critically-acclaimed Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Brad Paisley is another big nominee as the big night approaches, with Brad in the running for Entertainer, Top Male Vocalist, Video of the Year (for “Online”), and Album (for the million-selling 5th Gear). (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Other favorites nominated for major honors are Martina McBride and Carrie Underwood (both up for Top Female Vocalist), Montgomery Gentry (for Top Vocal Duo), and Keith Anderson (for Song of the Year as co-writer on the Big and Rich number-one smash, “Lost in this Moment”). Show performer Kellie Pickler is vying for Top New Female Vocalist, while the Top New Male category includes “Something About a Woman” and “Startin’ With Me” hitmaker, Jake Owen. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Don’t miss any of the excitement leading up to the show, including a special ACM preview edition of GAC’s Opry Live (Saturday, 8:00pm ET and Sunday, 6:00pm ET), featuring past performances from such ACM nominees as Martina, Carrie, Brad, Kellie and Jake. GAC will also catch all the glamour of the arriving celebrities with the ACM Orange Carpet Live special, airing just prior to the awards (Sunday, 7:00pm ET).
• And … for the first time in ACM history, fans can vote for Entertainer of the Year! Voting began May 1 and continues online at www.voteacm.com into the show! Visit the site to see where you can vote for Kenny or Brad!

  Kenny Chesney talks about the thrill of receiving 11 nominations for this year’s ACM Awards. (:31)

“You don’t wake up thinking you’re gonna get 11 nominations for anything. I’ve never gotten anywhere close to that, you know, and the thing that I love about it is I got nominated a bunch of times for doing something I love to do: making music. It’s kind of mind-blowing, really. I’m excited about it, you know, I’m excited about just being in that kind of spot in my career and in my life, and I love making records and I love performing. I feel like that entertaining people is what we do the best, and I’m just thrilled about it.”

  Miranda Lambert says it means a lot to her that her second album is up for ACM Album of the Year. (:18)

“I’ve really been fortunate with Crazy Ex because it is such a crazy, quote unquote, road with this album. You know, this album is really special to me. It’s my second one. It really is exactly who I am right now in my life, every song on there. And I just … the fact that the industry notices that – it just means so much.”

 Brad Paisley – a past ACM Album of the Year winner for Time Well Wasted – is thrilled that 5^th Gear received an Album of the Year nomination. (:18)

“You know if that hadn’t been in there, I’d be very disappointed ’cause I worked very hard on these albums, and I’m really proud of this record. I’m really proud of where we went with it, and the difference that I hear in it from my other projects, you know, just stylistically and the chances we took.”

  Carrie Underwood is looking forward to being part of the ACM Awards. (:14)

“The ACMs were the first major awards that I started winning, like Female and stuff like that, and they’re in Vegas, so (laughs), you know they always stand out as being a good time and you know just getting together and celebrating country music.”

 Brooks and Dunn talk about their nomination for ACM Top Vocal Duo. (:28)

Ronnie: “It’s hard to explain – it’s just a given that we get excited about it and being involved. I think at this stage in the game, just to be nominated and be in the game is fun. But I don’t know … K-B, what do you think?”
Kix: “It does – it sounds trite – but…heck – you know, every year like you said, it’s not like we take it for granted. We definitely got more than our share, that’s for sure, and way more than we expected.”

  Troy Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry talks about their ACM nod for Top Vocal Duo. (:15)

“Nominations I take as that we’re continuing to make great music and being recognized by the industry voters that … I guess it’s kind of a way that I gauge that for us that we’re still making good music and people are still accepting Montgomery Gentry.”

  Jake Owen talks about goals and being nominated for an ACM Award. (:31)

“My Dad used to tell me a lot that unless you know where you’re going, you’ll never know when you get there. So I always have visions of where I want to go, what I want to do. I have goals. And you know what? One of my main goals was to be nominated for an ACM, or any award for that matter, but the fact that it’s come as quickly as it has is very humbling for one, considering the competition and the talent that’s out there in country music. And it’s flattering at the same time, and I’m honored to be part of this whole deal. I can’t wait to go to Vegas and see what happens.”

  Keith Anderson considers his Song of the Year nomination a dream come true. (:27)

“It’s been awesome, you know, just being a songwriter and coming to town, ultimately wanting to be an artist, but really having a desire to establish myself as a songwriter first. Now to have the ACM nomination for Song of the Year, just to think that a song I’ve written, a little kid from Miami, Oklahoma, a dream of being a songwriter and artist, has now written a song that’s considered one of the top five songs of last year. I mean, just a dream come true – one of the coolest things ever.”