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THE 59TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS BEST COUNTRY SONG Lambert took center stage at the iHeart Country Festival in “Blue Ain’t Your Color” Austin in April. KEITH URBAN Songwriters Clint Lagerberg, Hillary Lindsey, Steven Lee Olsen This fresh spin on barroom seduction, the fourth single from Urban’s Ripcord album, is the result of a collaboration between songwriting veteran Hillary Lindsey (who won the category in February with Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” which she co-wrote with Lori McKenna and Liz Rose) and relative newcomers Steven Lee Olsen and Clint Lagerberg. And though the tune was an aesthetic departure for Urban, who recorded it as a drum machine-driven waltz, it has spent six weeks (and counting) at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs and became the artist’s 18th top 40 hit on the Hot 100. “Die a Happy Man” THOMAS RHETT Songwriters Sean Douglas, Thomas Rhett, Joe Spargur Rhett dedicated this designed-for-frst- artist recruited pop specialists Sean “Vice” dances track to his wife, Lauren (who Douglas (Nick Jonas, David Guetta) and MIRANDA LAMBERT co-stars with him in the video), but it Joe Spargur (Fifth Harmony, Jason Derulo) Songwriters Miranda Lambert, Shane resonated with romantic country fans to co-write the single. McAnally, Josh Osborne everywhere, topping Country Airplay for With her divorce from Blake Shelton in six weeks early in 2016. “Happy Man” “Humble and Kind” the rearview mirror, Lambert teased the gives new meaning to the adage “home is TIM McGRAW November release of her double-disc The where the heart is,” citing all the ways in Songwriter Lori McKenna Weight of These Wings — one of the year’s which its subject (to Rhett, at least) is the With a video inspired by Oprah Winfrey most anticipated country albums — by eighth wonder of the world. The Nashville and an illustrated-book tie-in, this didactic defying expectations. She resisted the song clearly resonated with McGraw’s do- narrative that those watching the tabloids gooder side — but it was initially conceived might have expected in favor of “Vice,” a by McKenna as a list of directives for melancholy, rock-laced ode to no regrets. WHERE I KEEP MY GRAMMYS her fve children. The singer-songwriter It’s both McAnally’s and Lambert’s second LECRAE received both her frst nomination and win nomination in the category, and Osborne’s at the 2016 Grammys for “Girl Crush” and frst. The song debuted at No. 2 on the Hot has notched three additional nominations Country Songs chart — the highest of her “I kept my Grammys in a this year in the Americana categories for career. (The Weight of These Wings wasn’t her own cinematic album, The Bird and eligible for nomination because it was basement closet because the Rife. “Humble and Kind” received released after the Sept. 30 deadline.) the 2016 CMA Award for song of the year, of this fear that if you making McKenna one of fve women in live in that moment too history to win the award solo. “My Church” long, you lose the focus MAREN MORRIS Songwriters Busbee, Maren Morris to move forward and to Classic country themes — sinning, redemption and the open road — ft together create great things. Only efortlessly in Morris’ breakout single, a singalong-ready track she penned with pop/ recently, for family and country songwriter Busbee (5 Seconds of Summer, Jason Aldean). Nods to legends like friends, have I moved Johnny Cash and Hank Williams helped the song fnd a home at radio, where it rose to them upstairs to a mantel No. 9 on Country Airplay and hit No. 50 on the Hot 100. Morris, who also is nominated in a front room.” for best new artist, breathed new life into the song when she sang it live at the CMA THE TWO-TIME WINNER WON IN 2012 AND 2014. Awards backed by The McCrary Sisters and Rhett played the Country Thunder festival The Preservation Hall Jazz Band. in Twin Lakes, Minn., in July. LAMBERT: ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES. RHETT: TIMOTHY HIATT/GETTY IMAGES. LECRAE: ADELA LOCONTE/GETTY IMAGES. 50 BILLBOARD | DECEMBER 31, 2016.

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