Carrie Underwood On Why She Wants To Be CMA Entertainer Of The Year After A Decade Of Snubs

Despite being one of the biggest players in country music ever since she burst onto the scene in 2005, Carrie Underwood has shockingly never even been nominated for the Country Music Association Awards’ prestigious Entertainer of the Year of the year award.

But after more than a decade of shut outs, the star finally garnered her very first nomination ahead of the 2016 CMAs ceremony, and now Underwood is making no secret of the fact that she really wants to win.

Carrie spoke out about her first CMAs Entertainer of the Year nomination in a new interview with The Tennessean, where Underwood revealed that she’s most certainly gunning for the prestigious award following the stellar response to her “The Storyteller Tour.”

“I cannot tell a lie, and that one was just really important,” Carrie told the site after discovering that she was nominated for the CMA Entertainer of the Year award, which, if Underwood does land the trophy in November, would mark Carrie’s very first CMAs win in any category since 2008.

“I don’t want to say that I got used to [not winning], but a little bit,” Carrie said of the constant CMAs snubs that have surrounded her ever since she partnered up with Brad Paisley to host the country music awards show eight years ago.

“It ended up being kind of a blessing,” Underwood continued of not winning a single CMA in recent years. “I could just realize what we do is all about and being out on the road and seeing people and having people sing your songs back to you,” Carrie continued, “and just seeing the crowds grow and grow and grow and feeling stronger in myself as a performer and as an entertainer.”

Carrie Underwood previously spoke out about how she discovered the CMAs has honored her with a nomination in the prestigious Entertainer of the Year category in the wake of her uber-successful “The Storyteller Tour,” revealing that she was actually on the road in Alaska with her 1-year-old son Isaiah when she found out the news.

“I first got the news about the CMA nominations when I woke up,” Underwood revealed of her 2016 CMAs nominations, where Carrie got nods in the Entertainer, Female Vocalist, Album (for her latest release Storyteller) and Musical Event of the Year (for her duet with Keith Urban, “The Fighter”) categories.

“I was super duper excited about all of it, but I’d forgotten for that moment,” Carrie then continued of her four latest CMAs nominations. “I woke up to all these text messages, and like phone calls… saying congratulations, and I was like ‘Congratulations? What is it?’ And I was trying to find all the nominees, just who got what nominations, and I’m super excited,” Underwood said.

Underwood also revealed her surprised reaction to her Entertainer of the Year nomination, admitting that she believes “The Storyteller Tour,” which just hit the Staples Center in Los Angeles earlier this week, is her best tour to date.

“We’ve been just putting together just the best tours, and worked so hard for a long time and you know I’m especially proud of ‘The Storyteller Tour,'” Carrie said of her latest string of shows, which will see Underwood perform more than 90 shows before the tour finally wraps in November.

“I’m just beyond excited, and I’m humbled, and thankful for that nomination,” Carrie continued. “It’s incredible.”

With Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley returning as hosts for their ninth consecutive year, the 50th Annual CMA Awards are set to air on November 2 on ABC.

What do you think of Carrie Underwood’s confessions about her big CMAs Entertainer of the Year nomination?

[Featured Image by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for CMT]