Miranda Lambert Recalls Terrifying First CMA Experience

Miranda Lambert is one of the CMA Awards' most nominated artists, coming in third in total nominations for her career behind Alan Jackson (81 noms) and George Strait (83 noms). Miranda has had 61 total CMA nominations in her career and many wins as well. She started to win the Female Vocalist of the Year award in 2010 on her fourth nomination in the category.

Lambert went on to win Female Vocalist for the CMA six times, winning her last trophy in that category in 2017. She has been a nominee in the category ever since, including a nominee for this year's Female Vocalist among tough competition from Lainey Wilson, Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley McBryde, and Carly Pearce.

We've talked to Miranda many times over the years about her CMA nominations, wins, and performances. Not long ago, she recalled her very first CMA experience, which happened in 2005. She told us, "I was terrified to get on that stage. It was the year (2005) it was at Madison Square Garden, so not only was it my first time in New York City to perform, but it was the CMAs, and everybody I ever loved was sitting in the crowd, not to mention the television aspect of it."

Lambert added, "It was sort of our first time to say, 'Hey, here's who I am as an artist.' And so I felt like a lot was riding on that performance, and we had a fire...these huge firewalls, and I was afraid my hair was gonna catch on fire. There was a million things going through my mind."

While Miranda has yet to win the CMA's top honor of Entertainer of the Year, she has been nominated in the category six times, although she is not in the category this year. Considered a CMA darling, she has won many other CMA awards over the years, including the coveted Album of the Year award in 2010 for Revolution and again in 2014 for her album Platinum. She won the CMA's Music Video award twice, Single of the Year in 2014 for "Automatic" and Song of the Year in 2012 with then-husband Blake Shelton for "Over You."

Even though she has had her share of love from the CMA over the years, with yesterday's (11/7) announcement of a new record label home, she could very well be on a winning CMA Awards roll once again in her fantastic career.

The 2023 CMA Awards will be broadcast live on ABC TV and will be given out starting at 8 PM ET.

CMA Fest 2023 takes place this week in Nashville, with the performers at the Nissan Stadium tonight (6/8) being Luke Combs, Dan + Shay, Jordan Davis, Carly Pearce, and Tyler Hubbard.

Also, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, and many more superstars will perform on the Nissan Stadium stage this weekend.

As we get ready to see this year's performers, we look back at what some of this year's performers have said about the fans and the event over the years at CMA Fest.

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Miranda was presented with a gold record for her Crazy Ex-Girlfriend album just before she spoke to the press in 2008 at CMA Fest. She reacted, "The fans are what gives me a job. And besides a job, which I have a great job, they give me an album of the year (2008 ACM for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and a gold record."

Later in the same interview, Lambert said, "People want to know you, and they want to know what you're about. I just really am who I am, and what you see is what you get, and I think that's why I have such a good relationship with my fans and why they support me so much."

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In 2014, Little Big Town hosted CMA Fest for an ABC television special and had to interview fellow artists for the spcial. Backstage before they performed on the main stage that night, Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman said they got a little starry-eyed interviewing one artist in particular. Karen said, "They asked us to interview some of our friends, and Kimberly and I interviewed Tim McGraw, and we turned into two ten-year-old girls. It's like we had never spoken to anyone before." Kimberly added, "That was one of my most embarrassing moments. It was awful. I felt like an idiot."

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Tyler Hubbard performs as a solo artist on the Nissan Stage tonight (6/8). In 2015, back when he was partnered with Brian Kelley in Florida Georgia Line, Tyler told us backstage before they performed, "Our fans are changing our life. They are very passionate and loyal, and on weeks like this, we get to give back. We are always going one hundred and ten miles an hour where we can't spend time with them, so it's a good week for us; we enjoy it for sure."

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In 2016, before he performed on the main stage at LP Field (now called Nissan Stadium) at CMA Fest, Luke recalled his first days at CMA Fest and building his fan base. He said, "I always remember my first ones and starting out doing River Stages and always dreaming of coming over here and performing at LP Field and all of the stuff building the fan base early in the week. It's an amazing week for Nashville."

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Keith told us why he loved CMA Fest so much in 2018 before he performed at Nissan Stadium. Urban said, "Well, number one for the fans who come from all over the world to be here, and it's an amazing week for them. For me personally too, I love the work that all of the CMA board and all of the foundation do. They've been very good to me over the years, and it's my tribe."