Cassadee Pope Reflects on ‘Incredible’ CMA Awards Nomination
After having an incredible year earning a No. 1 single and releasing her four-song EP, Pope topped off the whole experience with a CMA nomination for her duet, "Think of You," with Chris Young.
It seems pretty clear that 2016 was a prime year for Cassadee Pope. From earning a No. 1 song with Chris Young for their duet, “Think of You,” to releasing a four-song EP called Summer in June to great fan response, she’s got it all together in her career. As the cherry on top, she recently was nominated for a CMA Award in the category for Vocal Event of the Year with Young, which absolutely blew her mind.
“It was extremely crazy because I’ve never been nominated before,” Pope told Sounds Like Nashville during a phone interview. “This is my first CMA nomination and I just remember Chris mentioning a while ago that it was a possibility and he had been speaking to some CMA board members and they all were like, ‘Yes, definitely looking good for you guys!’ But never in a million years did I think it would actually happen, so when it did, it was really surreal and it’s just a good feeling to be recognized for, you know, the hard work we put into this song and the fact that people are connecting with it. It’s incredible.”
Funny enough, Pope wasn’t even tuned into the broadcast when the nominations were being announced that morning. She was surrounded with her family and headed to the airport after a quick visit to see some of her loved ones during a special day for her.
“I was actually in the car leaving this little town in Pennsylvania called Vandergrift where my mom’s side of the family are from. I was there celebrating my birthday like two days before I found out, so we were on our way to the Pittsburgh airport in the car when I saw it on Twitter. I was with my mom, my sister and my grandpa, so it was a really special moment,” she explained.
Pope and Young were nominated in the Vocal Event of the Year category alongside Dierks Bentley and Elle King for “Different for Girls,” Luke Bryan and Karen Fairchild for “Home Alone Tonight,” Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood for “The Fighter,” and Chris Stapleton and Morgane Stapleton for “You Are My Sunshine.”
The 50th Annual CMA Awards will broadcast live from Nashville on Wednesday, November 2 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
