This year’s battle for the fan-voted ACM New Artist of the Year Award is an intriguing match-up of 3 very popular young artists. Scotty McCreery, Brantley Gilbert, and Hunter Hayes are all fresh faces to the national country music scene that come with large, dedicated fan bases. Here we will study each candidates credentials to see if we can predict who will win the award this Sunday night on CBS.
CREDENTIALS
- Scotty McCreery – Scotty McCreery boasts over 945,800 fans on Facebook and over 474,400 followers on Twitter. He debuted with a #1, Platinum selling album titled Clear As Day that so far has produced two singles. “I Love You This Big” peaked at #15 on the charts, and “The Trouble With Girls” made it up to #17. Scotty’s fan base is used to voting for him, as he was voted the 2011 American Idol on the popular Fox TV Show. His new single, “Water Tower Town” will be released to Country Radio on April 9th.
- Brantley Gilbert – Brantley Gilbert currently has over 703,500 fans on Facebook and over 77,800 followers on Twitter. His album Halfway to Heaven peaked at #2 on the charts and produced the huge #1 hit “Country Must be Country Wide.” His follow-up single, “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” is currently at #17 on the charts and continues to rise towards the top. Brantley has also earned a lot of popularity for his collaboration with Colt Ford on Jason Aldean‘s hit “Dirt Road Anthem” as well as for writing Jason Aldean‘s hit “My Kinda Party.”
- Hunter Hayes – Hunter Hayes has over 167,800 fans on Facebook and over 72,400 followers on Twitter. His self-titled album peaked at #7, and so far produced a #14 hit in “Storm Warning.” His current single, “Wanted,” was recently released and is currently at #43 on the charts and climbing. While his social media fan numbers pale in comparison, he has a rabid fan base of teenage girls who surely will be voting to the maximum allowance.
BREAKDOWN
Why Scotty McCreery can win: He has the largest online following, the most album sales, and has become a household name thanks to his run on American Idol.
Why Brantley Gilbert can win: He had the biggest radio hit of the three, is associated with the hottest touring artist in country music (Jason Aldean), and is more “country” than the other two who are more “pop-country.”
Why Hunter Hayes can win: His fan base seems to have a lot of cross-over appeal with Scotty McCreery‘s fans, and he might be able to lure some of Scotty’s fans to vote for him instead. He’s often been called the “Country Justin Bieber” due to his popularity with teenage girls, and seems to have the most aggressive online campaign to convince voters to vote for him. His fan base seems to be the most likely to be willing to vote daily.
PREDICTION
My prediction is that Brantley Gilbert is going to edge out Scotty McCreery since Hunter Hayes is likely to steal some of Scotty’s fan base. I also feel Brantley is the most deserving of the award due to the success of “Country Must be Country Wide,” “Dirt Road Anthem,” and “My Kinda Party.” I also feel that Brantley has the most potential to go on to have a long, successful career, which is what this award is about.
REACTION
So who do YOU think WILL win, and who do you think SHOULD win?