Understanding the 2022 ACM Awards Nominations: Snubs + Surprises

Cue the tears! The list of nominees for the 2022 ACM Awards brought happy tears for many artists and tears of frustration for several others. At least, we think it did — nobody in country music is going to take to social media talking about how upset they are to have been snubbed by ACM voters, right?

We found four big surprises and four big snubs, and added two more that we'll call light snubbings.

Chris Young leads all nominees with seven ACM nominations, but he's one of several artists to be nominated in four categories. That's a little bit of an easier way to understand the nominations because an artist can be nominated more than once per category. Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Carly Pearce, Carrie Underwood and Shane McAnally are five more who are up for awards in four categories.

Of the above mentioned artists, only Young makes the list of surprises and snubs, seen below. Scroll down to understand why a reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year was shut out, why country music's most nominated artist at the 2022 Grammys was left off, and how one of the biggest ACM categories is changing.