NEW YORK (AP) — Ella Langley, riding the wave of her crossover megahit “Choosin’ Texas,” leads the nominations for the 2026 Country Music Association Awards with nine nods, followed by her mentor Miranda Lambert with six.
Also among top nominees announced Thursday: Kacey Musgraves and Ben West with five nominations each, Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and Stephen Wilson Jr. with four nominations each, and Dave Clauss, Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson with three nominations each.
Joining Langley in competing for the night’s highest honor — CMA entertainer of the year — will be Johnson, Stapleton, Combs and Wilson, who is gunning for a repeat.
Langley's “Be Her” and “Choosin’ Texas” both nabbed nominations for single of the year, along with Taylor Swift's “I Knew It, I Knew You” from the movie “Toy Story 5,” Wilson's “Somewhere Over Laredo” and Johnson's “The Fall.” Producer-writer Jack Antonoff got his first nomination in the single of the year category as producer of Swift's song.
In February, Langley became the only woman to simultaneously hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, all thanks to “Choosin’ Texas,” co-written with Lambert. Langley also won all seven of her nominations at the 2026 ACM Awards.
Nominated for album of the year are Langley’s “Dandelion,” Zach Top's “Ain’t In It For My Health,” Musgraves' “Middle of Nowhere,” Parker McCollum's self-titled album and Combs' “The Way I Am.” Song of the year nominees are “Be Her,” “Beautiful Things,” “Choosin’ Texas,” “Dry Spell” and “Gary.”
Lambert, the most-winning female in CMA Awards history with 14 wins, co-produced Langley’s “Dandelion” album and co-wrote “Choosin’ Texas.” Langley will appear on Lambert's upcoming album “Crisco,” featured on the opening song “Snakeskin Boots.”
Last year, Wilson, who hosted and performed at the CMAs, took home the entertainer of the year award, as well as album of the year. Male vocalist of the year went to Johnson and Brooks & Dunn won vocal duo of the year.
The vocal group of the year category this year includes Lady A, Little Big Town, Midland, Old Dominion and The Red Clay Strays. New artist of the year candidates are Avery Anna, Carter Faith, Emily Ann Roberts, Tucker Wetmore and Wilson.
Female vocalist of the year nominations pit Lambert and Langley against Megan Moroney, Musgraves and Wilson. (Lambert has now passed Reba McEntire with the most female vocalist of the year nominations all-time with 19.) The male counterpart has Combs, Johnson, Stapleton, Top and Wilson.
The prizes are nominated and voted on by more than 7,000 members of the Country Music Association, which includes music executives, artists, publicists, songwriters and other industry professionals. The 60th annual CMA Awards will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 18 on ABC and Disney+, and the next day on Hulu.
FILE - Ella Langley performs during the 61st annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - Ella Langley arrives at the IHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles on March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are climbing again and are back to where they were before the summer as the war with Iran keeps clogging the global flow of crude. That’s worsening worries about inflation and cranking up pressure within the bond market, helping to send stocks lower again on Wall Street Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% and is on track for a fourth straight loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 300 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.9%. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed another 4.1% and got back above $105 per barrel for the first time since May.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of U.S. crude oil rose above $100 for the first time Thursday since May with no end in sight in the U.S.-Iran war. The price for Brent crude, the international standard, rose above $105 a barrel.
U.S. stock futures fell. Futures for the S&P 500 dropped 0.5%, Dow futures slipped 0.2% and futures for the Nasdaq composite fell 1.3%.
A report showed that inflation in the U.S. picked up at the wholesale level in August after cooling earlier in the summer.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank raised its key interest rate by one-quarter point to try to tame inflation in the European Union. Stock indexes in Europe fell, with Germany’s DAX down 0.6% and France's CAC-40 down 1.3%.
Markets in Asia closed lower with the exception of Japan.
The price of U.S. crude rose 4.3% to $100.17. Brent crude gained 4% to $105.26. A series of attacks between the U.S. and Iran have stifled the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, and President Donald Trump said Wednesday that oil prices likely won’t fall until after U.S. midterm elections.
The jump in oil prices over the course of the war has pushed prices for many goods higher. Gasoline prices in the U.S. are up about 32% from a year ago to $4.22 per gallon. Higher fuel costs cut into household budgets directly and also indirectly raise prices for goods because of higher shipping costs.
The price of diesel, which can have an outsized impact on consumers because it is used in shipping and production, hit an all-time high Friday and has continued to climb since. The average price for a gallon reached $5.94 overnight and is now 9 cents higher than it was Friday.
Inflation was already stubbornly high when the U.S. started its war against Iran because of the U.S. trade war with much of the world.
Macy’s shares slipped during premarketing trading even as the department store chain raised its sales and profit guidance after delivering sales growth across all its brands during its fiscal second quarter. Shares dipped 4%.
Bond yields rose, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury rising to 4.91%.
Specialists Dilip Patel, right, and Trader Robert Charmak, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Options trader Matthew Hefter works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
The per-gallon price for regular unleaded fuel is displayed electronically on a sign outside a Conoco gasoline station Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A worker passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock price at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
