Brantley Gilbert, Hunter Hayes & Scotty McCreery Chosen by Country Fans at GACTV.com as Nominees for ACM New Artist of the Year Award

ENCINO, Calif., Feb. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Academy of Country Music and Great American Country (GAC) announced today that Brantley Gilbert, Hunter Hayes and Scotty McCreery have been named nominees for this year's ACM New Artist of the Year Award, which will be given out during the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network.  

Voting for New Artist of the Year will take place at www.VoteACM.com beginning March 19, 2012 at 12:00 noon ET/9:00 AM PT and will continue until 5:00 PM PT on Sunday, April 1, 2012 (before the LIVE show starts).  The New Artist of the Year final nominees were selected by a combined vote of the fans and professional members of the Academy of Country Music.   Professional member votes will be combined with fan votes to obtain the winner of the category for the ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS.

Leading up to the show, fans can watch interviews and exclusive performances with the three nominees on GAC's "ACM New Artist of the Year" special, premiering Monday, March 19, 2012 at 9:00 PM ET and re-airing multiple times until voting closes on April 1. Additional air times and dates can be found at GACtv.com/ACM.  

The winner of the New Artist of the Year category will be awarded on the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network.

About the ACM New Artist of the Year Nominees

Brantley Gilbert
At the age of 27, Brantley Gilbert already has an impressive list of industry accolades. The deluxe version of the rising star's sophomore album, Halfway to Heaven Deluxe, debuted at #2 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart in September 2011. Collectively, the standard and deluxe versions of Halfway to Heaven have already sold almost 500,000 albums to date. Brantley's first single on The Valory Music Co., "Country Must Be Country Wide," recently scored the #1 spot at Country radio. As a celebrated songwriter, Gilbert also penned three #1 hits – "My Kinda Party," "Dirt Road Anthem," and most recently, "Country Must Be Country Wide." In addition to playing his own headlining dates, Gilbert is currently on the road with Eric Church for his The Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour. For tour dates and more on Brantley visit: www.facebook.com/BrantleyGilbertMusic.

Hunter Hayes
Hunter Hayes is the only 2011 debut artist to play every instrument, write/co-write every song and co-produce his critically acclaimed self-titled debut album. This multi-instrumentalist garnered praise with recent national television appearances on CBS' Late Show with David Letterman, Good Morning America and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  Billboard calls Hunter "a prodigious talent…drawing on modern pop and country sounds – including Keith Urban, John Mayer, Rascal Flatts and Jason Mraz." USA Today raves "if this Louisiana singer is as good as this single [Storm Warning], he's about to be a big country star." He has co-written songs for Rascal Flatts and Montgomery Gentry and has shared the stage with Trace Adkins, Lady Antebellum, Hank Williams, Jr., Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift and more. Hunter is currently on his first headlining Most Wanted Tour with sold out dates across the country.

Scotty McCreery
Scotty McCreery's debut album, Clear As Day, was certified platinum in just three months, and he was recently named No. 1 on Billboard magazine's list of Top New Country Artists for 2011. Clear As Day debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Top Country Albums charts, making him the youngest man in history to open at the top of the all-genre chart with a debut release. It garnered the highest sales of any country solo album released last year and held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart for six weeks. The album's first single, "I Love You This Big," has been certified gold, and his current single, "The Trouble With Girls," is approaching gold status. He is currently touring as part of Brad Paisley's Virtual Reality Tour 2012 presented by Chevrolet. 

About the Academy of Country Music Awards
The 47th Academy of Country Music Awards is dedicated to honoring and showcasing the biggest names and emerging talent in the country music industry.  The show is produced for television by dick clark productions and will be broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network.  Orly Adelson and R.A. Clark are executive producers.  Barry Adelman is producer, and Bob Bardo is the executive in charge of production. Bob Romeo is executive producer for the Academy of Country Music.  For more information, please visit www.acmcountry.com.

About Great American Country (GAC)
Great American Country is the leader in country music entertainment, and delivers to viewers the widest variety of country music, its artists and the lifestyles they influence. GAC broadcasts original country music programming, music performance specials, live concerts and music videos. GAC is available in more than 62 million households and online at http://www.GACTV.com.

GAC is owned by Scripps Networks, the leading developer of lifestyle-oriented content for television and the Internet, including HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Travel Channel and Fine Living Network. Scripps Networks is based in Knoxville, Tenn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta and Nashville, and is a unit of Scripps Networks Interactive.

SOURCE Academy of Country Music Awards