CMA Award-Nominated Songs For Your Next Long Run
These fun CMA Award-nominated tracks will give you a good kick during your next run.
Get access to everything we publish when you sign up for Outside+.
CMA Awards Playlist
With the 2018 Country Music Association Awards around the corner (this year’s ceremony takes place on November 14), we wanted to survey a few of the tracks that are both in the running and good for running. Usually, the most confusing part about the show is that folks refer to it as the CMAs (instead of the CMAAs). This year, however, the most perplexing part is Lauren Alaina’s New Artist of the Year nomination—partly because she came to prominence years ago as a contestant on American Idol and mostly because she had seven Billboard hits between 2011 and 2017.
Presuming there’s some quirk to the New Artist criteria that’s lost on me, the rest of the proceedings feature a who’s who of modern country favorites. Apart from the traditional categories, you’ll find highlights in the form of Luke Combs’ Entertainer of the Year nomination and Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s contender for Musical Event of the Year. As in most years, the selections below are likelier to transport you with their lyrics than propel you with their speed. But if you want to take the pulse of country music this year, everything below would make for excellent company on an upcoming run. With that in mind, you can find a few of our favorites below—organized by the categories in which they’ll be competing.
- Entertainer of the Year
- Luke Combs – Beautiful Crazy – 103 BPM
- Single of the Year
- Jason Aldean & Miranda Lambert – Drowns The Whiskey – 90 BPM
- Female Vocalist of the Year
- Kacey Musgraves – High Horse – 120 BPM
- Male Vocalist of the Year
- Thomas Rhett – Crash and Burn – 129 BPM
- Vocal Duo of the Year
- Sugarland – Still The Same – 106 BPM
- New Artist of the Year
- Lauren Alaina – Road Less Traveled – 113 BPM
- Vocal Group of the Year
- Little Big Town – Summer Fever – 105 BPM
- Song of the Year
- Sam Hunt – Body Like a Back Road – 99 BPM
- Musical Event of the Year
- Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line – Meant to Be – 77 BPM
- Music Video of the Year
- Carrie Underwood – Cry Pretty – 70 BPM
To find more workout songs, folks can check out the free database at Run Hundred. Visitors can browse song selections there by genre, tempo and era to find the music that best fits their particular workout routines.