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Women Who Have Won The CMA’s Entertainer of the Year

On Wednesday night’s (11/9) 56th Annual CMA Awards, the most coveted honor is the Entertainer of the Year award, which is given out at the very end of the show….

Women Who Have Won The CMA's Entertainer of the Year
Rick Diamond/Getty Images

On Wednesday night's (11/9) 56th Annual CMA Awards, the most coveted honor is the Entertainer of the Year award, which is given out at the very end of the show. This year, there are two female nominees in the category, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood. If either one of them wins the honor, it will be only the tenth time in CMA history that a woman won Entertainer of the Year. The last woman to win the award was Taylor Swift in 2011. The first woman to win the honor was Loretta Lynn in 1972.

Miranda Lambert won the Entertainer trophy at the ACM Awards earlier this year, and is favored to win it at the CMAs. The other nominees are: Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallen, and Carrie Underwood. However, it could go to any one of the five.

As we gear up for what could become country music history being made on Wednesday (11/9), we look at the seven women who have taken home the CMA's biggest honor.

Loretta Lynn

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Loretta Lynn won the CMA's Entertainer of the Year in 1972.


Dolly Parton

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Dolly Parton won the CMA's Entertainer of the Year in 1978.


Barbara Mandrell

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Barbara Mandrell won the CMA's Entertainer of the Year in 1980 and then again in 1981.


Reba McEntire

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Reba McEntire won the CMA's Entertainer of the Year in 1986.


Shania Twain

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Shania Twain won the CMA's Entertainer of the Year in 1999.


The Chicks (formerly Dixie Chicks)

GettyImages-679903.jpgAdele Starr/Getty Images

Dixie Chicks won the CMA's Entertainer of the Year in 2000.


Taylor Swift

GettyImages-92996210.jpgRick Diamond/Getty Images

Taylor Swift won the CMA's Entertainer of the Year in 2009 and then again in 2011.

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.