For those of you who thought that Garth Brooks’ win in the Entertainer of the Year category at the 2019 CMA Awards was controversial, here’s some breaking news for you. In a virtual press conference on Wednesday morning, Brooks announced that he would like to permanently remove himself from consideration for nomination in that category. Brooks stated, “It’s time for someone else to hold that award and know what Entertainer feels like.” Brooks is a seven-time winner of the Entertainer of the Year award, but it was widely projected that the 2019 statue would be given to either Carrie Underwood or Eric Church.
As part of why he made this decision now, Brooks elaborated that he received a lot of negative messages on social media, but one tweet in particular stuck with him. “Hey man. This guy, why doesn’t he just step down (and leave) the entertainer for the next generation?” the tweet read. Brooks admitted that he 100% agrees with this tweet and has even gone as far as to try and create a CMA Entertainer of the Year Emeritus award for the older generation of country artists, but was denied. “That was my idea…but the CMAs can’t just create a title and give it to someone and I totally get it” Brooks said.
In response to his press conference, the Country Music Association released their own statement on the matter. In part, they said that CMA rules state that individuals cannot remove themselves from the ballot at any point. Voting in the first round has already been completed and ballots will be sent out for the second round on July 31st. So it looks like Brooks might still be able to be nominated for the 2020 Entertainer of the Year, even after this morning’s press conference.
Do you feel like Garth made the right decision? And who do you hope is nominated for the 2020 CMA Awards?
