Carrie Underwood could barely hold back tears after hearing Miranda Lambert explain why she thinks Underwood should win this year’s CMA Entertainer of the Year trophy. Speaking during an upcoming episode of The Ty Bentli Show, Underwood first said “She’s always been just super supportive and super sweet,” but she quickly let her true feelings come out.
Lambert had first called for Underwood to win the award on Instagram — breaking with tradition to publicly endorse a nominee in the process. But during a recent interview with Kix Brooks on American Country Countdown, she dug deeper into why Underwood is her choice.
“To me, the Entertainer of the Year is who’s represented the genre in every way the best for that year,” Lambert told Brooks. “It just was kind of haunting me. I really felt compelled to say something and, you know, watching Carrie host the CMAs pregnant [last year], and also do the Monday Night Football campaign, and also have a brand, and also work with charity, and be a wife, and be a mother and then host [the CMAs this year] with two legendary country artists . . . and go on tour. She tours like a rock star — she does every other day while we’re weekend warriors over here. I just know how much work that is. She works harder than I do, and I work hard [laughing]. I just felt like, as a whole, with her tour and everything she encompasses and what she’s represented for country music, she deserves it. She just does.”
“First, I’m kind of emotional,” Underwood said after hearing the clip. “It’s a nomination for all of us. It would definitely be … not just a win for all of the things that we’ve been doing, all that stuff that [Lambert] mentioned that I’m so lucky and blessed enough to do, but you know, you watch other women in this industry do the same thing, you know, it’s — I don’t know what I’m trying to say.”
After gathering her thoughts, Underwood turned her focus to what a potential EOTY win would mean for the rest of the women in country.
“I feel like we have so much talent, we just need some more open doors, and I don’t want any woman to feel like they can’t do everything—they can’t have this life, and have a family and have all of the things going on together and do what they do,” she said. “We’re all in it together. If there’s one incredible thing that’s happened from all of this talk about women in country music, it’s the fact that I feel like we’ve all banded together. We all understand — we’re the only ones that can understand because we’re women in this business. They don’t know what it’s like to be us. We lift each other up. We support each other. Miranda didn’t have to say any of that stuff.”
Carrie was also nominated for Entertainer of the Year in 2016, but did not win. The last female to win the award was Taylor Swift in 2011. Underwood will co-host the 53rd annual CMA Awards Wednesday night (November 13) with Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton, airing live at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
