Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris top 2021 CMT Music Awards nominations

CMT Music Awards return to Nashville this summer with a pair of hitmaking women in country music topping nominations.

Maren Morris and Miranda Lambert lead the field with four nominations apiece, including two each in top prize video of the year. Mickey Guyton, Kelsea Ballerini, Kane Brown and Little Big Town follow with three nominations each.

CMT Music Awards air June 9 at 7 p.m. CST on CMT, MTV, MTV2, Logo and Paramount Network. Brown returns to host for a second year, joined by Ballerini, a first-time co-host.

Ballots for the fan-voted show open Thursday at vote.cmt.com. Video of the Year ballots shrink from 14 candidates to five on June 1. CMT announces three finalists for the category on June 8.

Morris earned two slots in video of the year — for protest release "Better Than We Found It" and husband-wife duet with Ryan Hurd, "Chasing After You — as well as nods in female video of the year ("To Hell & Back") and collaborative video of the year ("Better Than We Found It").

Lambert returns to compete for video of the year with "Settling Down," a reflective song off her 2019 record "Wildcard," and "Drunk (And I Don't Want To Go Home)," a pop-country collaboration with Elle King that features tastes of 1980s nostalgia.

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Carrie Underwood, the winningest artist in the CMT Music Awards history, earns her latest video of the year nod for "Hallelujah," a John Legend collaboration. The project also earned a collaborative video of the year nod.

Underwood defended her video of the year title last year with "Drinking Alone," marking her 22nd CMT Music Awards win. She's won the night's marquee prize eight times in her career, including seven victories since 2010.

The show returns to an early summer broadcast after being delayed to October last year due to COVID-19 precautions.

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CMT Music Awards 2021 nominees

Video of the Year

• Carrie Underwood with John Legend - “Hallelujah”

• Dierks Bentley - “Gone”

• Elle King and Miranda Lambert - “Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)”

• Ingrid Andress - “Lady Like”

• Kane Brown - “Worldwide Beautiful”

• Keith Urban with P!nk - “One Too Many”

• Kelsea Ballerini - “hole in the bottle”

• Kenny Chesney - “Knowing You”

• Maren Morris - “Better Than We Found It”

• Mickey Guyton - “Heaven Down Here”

• Miranda Lambert - “Settling Down”

• Ryan Hurd with Maren Morris - “Chasing After You”

• Sam Hunt - “Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90's”

• Willie Jones - “American Dream”

Female Video of the Year

• Carly Pearce - “Next Girl”

• Gabby Barrett - “The Good Ones”

• Kelsea Ballerini - “hole in the bottle”

• Maren Morris - “To Hell & Back”

• Mickey Guyton - “Heaven Down Here”

• Miranda Lambert - “Settling Down”

Male Video of the Year

• Chris Stapleton - “Starting Over”

• Darius Rucker - “Beers and Sunshine”

• Kane Brown - “Worship You”

• Luke Bryan - “Down To One”

• Luke Combs - “Lovin' On You”

• Thomas Rhett - “What's Your Country Song”

Duo/Group Video of the Year

• Brothers Osborne - “All Night”

• Lady A - “Like A Lady”

• Little Big Town - “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”

• Old Dominion - “Never Be Sorry”

• Parmalee and Blanco Brown - “Just The Way”

• Runaway June - “We Were Rich”

Breakthrough Video of the Year

• Dylan Scott - “Nobody”

• Hailey Whitters feat. Little Big Town - “Fillin' My Cup”

• HARDY - “Give Heaven Some Hell”

• Lainey Wilson - “Things a Man Oughta Know”

• Mickey Guyton - “Black Like Me"

• Niko Moon - “GOOD TIME (Ride Along Video)”

Collaborative Video of the Year

• Carrie Underwood with John Legend - “Hallelujah”

• Chris Young and Kane Brown - “Famous Friends”

• Elle King and Miranda Lambert - “Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)”

• Keith Urban with P!nk - “One Too Many”

• Ryan Hurd with Maren Morris - “Chasing After You”

• Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard - “Undivided”

CMT Performance of the Year

• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards - Brooks & Dunn and Luke Combs “1, 2 Many”

• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards - Dan + Shay “I Should Probably Go To Bed”

• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards - Jimmie Allen and Noah Cyrus “This Is Us”

• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards - Kelsea Ballerini and Halsey “The Other Girl”

• From the 2020 CMT Music Awards - Little Big Town “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”

• From CMT Crossroads - Nathaniel Rateliff and Margo Price “Twinkle Twinkle”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: CMT Music Awards: Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris lead nominations