On Wednesday, September 21, Country Music Television announced its honorees for the 2022 Artists of the Year. This year, Carly Pearce, Cody Johnson, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, and Walker Hayes will be honored at the CMT Artists of the Year special, which airs next month on October 14. These artists have been selected based on chart performance and overall impact on the country music genre in the past year.
Brown and Combs have been nominated for the same award twice before, making this their third nomination. Meanwhile, Pearce, Johnson, and Hayes are all first-time artists of the year.
Carly Pearce’s latest album, 29: Written in Stone, was a critical success and won her Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2021 CMA Awards. Cody Johnson is also an award-winning artist, with two CMT awards under his belt. Walker Hayes released his fifth album in 2021, featuring “Fancy Like,” which went viral in a nationwide Applebee’s commercial.
Kane Brown and Luke Combs were both nominated in 2019 and 2021. Both have also released albums in 2022 and are currently on tour. Combs won last year’s CMA Entertainer of the Year Award and is nominated for the same award this year. Kane Brown debuted in 2015 with his first EP, Closer. In 2017, he became the first artist to top all five country music charts.
Since 2010, CMT has honored five artists annually, choosing from the top acts in the country music charts. The television special is typically a casual affair compared to the competitive atmosphere of the CMT Awards, where winners are determined via fan votes. Past Artists of the Year winners include Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, and Taylor Swift. Following tradition, the CMT Artist of the Year television special will be filmed at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville and will feature performances of the honorees’ songs by guest artists.
