So excited for Lady Antebellum who lead the way with seven Academy of Country Music Award nominations!  They are very deserving and really great kids!  Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton made the announcements this morning on the CBS Early Show.  Here's the release from ACMcountry.com.

 

Nominations Announced for the

45th Annual Academy of Country Music® Awards

Country Music's Party of the Year™

* * * *

NEW YORK, NY (March 2, 2010) - Nominations were announced today for the 45th ANNUAL ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS, a star-studded event produced for television by dick clark productions broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 18 at 8:00 PM live ET on WHIO-TV.

Country super stars Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton read the nominations live this morning during CBS' The Early Show broadcast from New York City. As previously announced, Reba McEntire will return for an unprecedented 12th time to host this year's show.

For the third year, fans will select the winner of the Academy's most prestigious honor, Entertainer of the Year and for the second year, the three newcomer categories for the annual Academy of Country Music Awards Top New Solo Vocalist, Top New Vocal Group and Top New Vocal Duo -- will also be opened up to fan voting. The winner in each Top New category will then move on to compete for Top New Artist which is also a fan voted category. Online voting for all fan voted categories will be available at www.voteACM.com. The winners of Entertainer of the Year and Top New Artist will be announced live during the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

This morning Lady Antebellum led with seven nominations, including Album of the Year for Lady Antebellum and Top Vocal Group. In addition, Lady Antebellum was nominated for Single Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Video of the Year for "Need You Now." They were also nominated as a producer for Single Record of the Year and as a composer for Song of the Year.

Miranda Lambert is nominated for six awards, including Album of the Year for Revolution and Top Female Vocalist. Lambert won the 2007 Album of the Year for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. She is nominated for Single Record of the Year and as an artist and composer for Song of the Year for "White Liar," which is also nominated for Video of the Year.

Carrie Underwood is nominated for six awards, including Entertainer of Year. Underwood is the reigning Entertainer of the Year, and, if she wins that category again, she will be the first female in Academy history to capture two Entertainer of the Year trophies. Underwood is also nominated as an artist and composer for Song of the Year for "Cowboy Casanova," as well as Vocal Event of the Year for "I Told You So" with Randy Travis. In addition, Underwood is nominated for Top Female Vocalist and Album of the Year for Play On. If she wins Top Female Vocalist, it will be the fourth consecutive year she has won the category. Underwood also won the 2006 Album of the Year for Some Hearts.

Taylor Swift is nominated for five awards, including her first nod for Entertainer of the Year. If Swift wins Entertainer of the Year, she will be the eighth female in Academy history to win in this category. Swift is nominated as an artist and composer for Song of the Year for "You Belong With Me," for which she is also nominated for Video of the Year and she also received a nomination for Top Female Vocalist.

Kenny Chesney is nominated for four awards, including Entertainer of the Year and Top Male Vocalist. If he wins Entertainer of the Year, it will be his fifth win in the category. He is currently one of only 3 acts in Academy history to achieve four wins for Entertainer of the Year. He is also nominated as an artist and producer for Vocal Event of the Year for "I'm Alive" with multi-platinum recording artist Dave Matthews.

Brad Paisley is nominated for four awards, including Entertainer of the Year and Top Male Vocalist. Paisley is the reigning Top Male Vocalist, and, if Paisley wins the category, it will be his fourth consecutive Top Male Vocalist title. Paisley is also nominated for Album of the Year for American Saturday Night and for Video of the Year for "Welcome to the Future." Paisley won the 2005 Album of the Year for Time Well Wasted.

Zac Brown Band is nominated for four awards including Entertainer of the Year, their first nomination in the category. If the Zac Brown Band wins Entertainer of the Year they will be the third vocal group in Academy history ever to win the award. The Zac Brown Band is also nominated for Album of the Year for The Foundation, Single Record of the Year for "Toes," and Top Vocal Group. They are the reigning Top New Vocal Group.

Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band also received two additional individual nominations as the producer for both Album of the Year for The Foundation and Single Record of the Year for "Toes."

Also, in its ninth year, the Academy of Country Music/The Home Depot Humanitarian Award will be given to Montgomery Gentry for their ongoing community service and charitable giving of their time and talent. The award recognizes country music artists who serve others, have a generous spirit and help build the dreams of those in need.

Members of the Academy of Country Music select the nominees and winners of the ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS, and select the final top eight nominees of the Entertainer of the Year category (up from the previously selected five) and the top three nominees in newcomer categories, Top Solo Vocalist, Top New Vocal Group and Top New Vocal Duo (different from last year's categories of Top New Female Vocalist, Top New Male Vocalist and Top New Vocal Duo or Group). Presenters and performers who will appear at the ceremony will be announced at a later date.

The following is the list of final nominees. Winners in each of the following categories, except where noted, will be presented with an ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARD during the live television broadcast:
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Kenny Chesney	Toby Keith
Brad Paisley	George Strait
Taylor Swift	Carrie Underwood
Keith Urban	Zac Brown Band
TOP MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Kenny Chesney	Brad Paisley
Darius Rucker	George Strait
Keith Urban
TOP FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Miranda Lambert	Reba McEntire
Taylor Swift	Carrie Underwood
Lee Ann Womack
TOP VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Lady Antebellum	Little Big Town
Randy Rogers Band	Rascal Flatts
The Zac Brown Band
TOP VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR
Brooks & Dunn	Joey + Rory
Montgomery Gentry	Steel Magnolia
Sugarland
TOP NEW SOLO VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Luke Bryan	Jamey Johnson
Chris Young
TOP NEW VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR
Bomshel	Joey + Rory
Steel Magnolia
TOP NEW VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR
Eli Young Band	Gloriana
The Lost Trailers
ALBUM OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company(s)]
American Saturday Night by Brad Paisley	Lady Antebellum by Lady Antebellum
Play On by Carrie Underwood	Revolution by Miranda Lambert
The Foundation by The Zac Brown Band
SINGLE RECORD OF THE YEAR
Need You Now by Lady Antebellum	People Are Crazy by Billy Currington
Red Light by David Nail	Toes by The Zac Brown Band
White Liar by Miranda Lambert
SONG OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Composer(s)/Publisher(s)/Artist(s)]
Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood	Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
People Are Crazy by Billy Currington	White Liar by Miranda Lambert
You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift
VIDEO OF THE YEAR [Awarded to Producer(s)/Director(s)/Artist(s)] (Off Camera Award)
Boots On by Randy Houser	Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
Welcome To The Future by Brad Paisley	White Liar by Miranda Lambert
You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift
VOCAL EVENT OF THE YEAR  [Awarded to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company] (Off Camera Award)
Hillbilly Bone by Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins	Honky Tonk Stomp by Brooks & Dunn featuring Billy Gibbons
I Told You So by Carrie Underwood featuring Randy Travis	I'm Alive by Kenny Chesney featuring Dave Matthews
Seeing Stars by Jack Ingram featuring Patty Griffin