Keith Urban and Brad Paisley 'Inadvertently' Omitted from CMA's Musical Event Category

Posted by Lisa L. Rollins Sep 10, 2009

After the CMA Awards nomination announcements on live-TV's Good Morning America on Sept. 9, 2009, it was discovered that Brad Paisley and Keith Urban were inadvertently omitted from the list of final nominees for CMA Musical Event of the Year for Start A Band.

According to a press statement from the CMA, the omission occurred when transferring information from the online ballot to the list of final nominees.

"We take the integrity of the CMA Awards balloting very seriously," said Tammy Genovese, CMA's CEO, in a Sept. 10, 2009, media release. "And when an oversight like this occurs we commit ourselves to a thorough review, thoughtful and immediate correction, and complete disclosure and accountability to the artists and our industry.

"I can assure CMA's valued constituents that we have examined every detail of the ballot for other discrepancies and all other categories were correct as announced."

Consequently, Paisley and Urban's Start A Band song collaboration will be added to the list of nominees for the final ballot and all previously announced nominees will remain on the list.

"All of the nominees for Musical Event of the Year are deserving and in the interest of fairness will remain on the ballot for the final vote by our membership," Genovese said. "We sincerely regret the omission of these two deserving artists from the list of nominees and apologize to Brad and Keith, and their representatives, for any confusion," Genovese noted.