DID THE CMAS SNUB CARRIE UNDERWOOD?

Following the announcing of the 2010 Country Music Association Awards nominations, many country fans were left scratching their heads over Carrie Underwood’s exclusion in the ‘Entertainer of the Year’ race.

Did the CMAs Snub Carrie Underwood?

With an eligibility year, that saw the “Cowboy Casanova” songstress release her third album ‘Play On’, which is nearing double-platinum status, collect her fifth Grammy, and add three more No.1’s to her impressive resume.

Add in a successful headlining tour, numerous television appearances including her own Christmas special and the filming of her first movie role, and it makes it even harder to justify exactly why Underwood didn’t garnish a nomination.

Some industry insiders have deemed it as the curse of ‘American Idol’ and people feeling Underwood has gotten a success through a method unconventional for country music, while others have highlighted the fact that the association doesn’t have a solid track record of nominating females.

Despite besting their male counterparts, Shania Twain, Reba McEntire and the Dixie Chicks have each only won the award once, and Underwood, who’s been country’s leading act since her debut, has yet to even score a nomination.

Even Taylor Swift, who rightfully won the honor in 2009, failed to score a nomination. Instead Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Zac Brown Band, Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert scored the five honorary spots.

While Paisley and Urban were locks on most prediction lists, the other three nominees have raised some concerns among fans.

Neither, Lady Antebellum or Miranda Lambert have headlined large venues this year and despite radio success, Lambert’s album has yet to reach platinum.

Antebellum, on the other hand, have the best-selling country album of the year and is the only country act, besides Swift, to have a mainstream Top 5 hit with their massive record "Need You Now", during the eligibility period.

Still, how can members of the association question Underwood paying her dues, and nominate relatively new artists like Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band.

Not to say that being a new artist should automatically be disqualified, because truth of the matter is the list should encompass the five artists that entertained us the most in the part year, therefore, Underwood, Swift, Urban, Paisley and George Strait should have garnished nods.

That said, even though Paisley and Urban, deserved their nominations, even they failed to match the success of Underwood or Swift in the past year.

At least with Swift, you can justify her exclusion by the low profile she has kept over the past few months and the fact that her last album ‘Fearless’ was released in 2008, but this wasn’t just the year that Underwood was suppose to score a nomination, this was the year she deserved to win.