The Country Music Association named their 2025 New Artist of the Year during Wednesday night’s live broadcast.
The 59th annual CMA Awards took place on Wednesday (November 19) at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Many of Music City’s greatest talents gathered to celebrate and honor this year’s winners.
One of the highlights of the night is the crowning of the New Artist of the Year. Five nominees were hoping to hear their name called, following in the footsteps of previous winners like Randy Travis, Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, The Judds, and Carrie Underwood.
This year’s nominees were: Ella Langley, Tucker Wetmore, Zach Top, Shaboozey, and Stephen Wilson Jr. Each of these acts was chosen as the top new artists of the past year by their peers through a three-round voting process. But only one could ultimately take home the coveted trophy.
This award went to the artist CMA members felt “demonstrated the most significant creative growth and development in overall consumption or chart activity, live performance and/or national media recognition related to the launch of their career,” according to the CMA.
About the 2025 CMA New Artist Of The Year Nominees
Ella Langley is currently one of the hottest acts in country music. She released her debut studio album in August 2024. “You Look Like You Love Me,” her duet with Riley Green, launched Langley into the spotlight with the song becoming one of the most viral hits of the year. The song reached No. 1 on the Country Airplay Chart, and was named Musical Event of the Year at the 2024 CMA Awards.
Tucker Wetmore‘s New Artist of the Year nod marks his first recognition from the CMA. The Washington native launched onto the country music scene last year after landing a track on the Twisters soundtrack with “Already Had It.”
“Wind Up Missin’ You,” the second single from his debut album, went to number 2 on the Country Airplay Chart. It has since been certified 2x Platinum, selling more than 2 million copies.
Zach Top has experienced a meteoric rise in the industry due to his ’90s country-esque sound and the support of classic country fans. This year’s New Artist of the Year nomination is the second for Top, who was also in the running in 2024. Proof of Zach Top’s unprecedented success is found in the fact that he earned five total nominations at the 2025 CMAs: New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year (Cold Beer & Country Music), Single of the Year (“I Never Lie”), and Song of the Year (“I Never Lie”). He was also named the Academy of Country Music’s New Artist of the Year April.
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Shaboozey marked a stellar year in 2024 with the success of “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The song tied with Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” as the longest-running No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 with an impressive 19-week run. The artist was also nominated for the CMA New Artist of the Year trophy in 2024. While he didn’t win that award, he was named the People’s Choice Country Awards New Artist of 2024 and Best New Country Artist at the iHeartRadio Music Awards earlier this year.
Stephen Wilson Jr.’s rise in country music has been a long one. At the age of 46, Wilson is one of the oldest category nominees in CMA history. If he wins, he will become the oldest, surpassing Jelly Roll, who was 39 when he won in 2023. Wilson is possibly the least recognizable name on this category nomination list, but viewers will know him after Wednesday’s live awards show. The singer will be performing twice. He will take the stage solo to sing Ben E. Lee’s classic “Stand by Me,” then he will join Shaboozey for “Took a Walk,” their theme song from the recent Stephen King-based film The Long Walk.
2025 CMA Awards New Artist of the Year Winner
Previous New Artist of the Year winner LeAnn Rimes and her fellow “9-1-1: Nashville” co-stars, Jessica Capshaw and Chris O’Donnell had the honor of passing the torch to this year’s winner ZACH TOP!
“I’m so thankful to be included in a category with so many other great artists that have had phenomenal years,” Zach said as he accepted the trophy. “This is my first CMA win ever, so it’s a big deal to me. I’ve got a long, long list of people to thank.”
He recognized his parents who “realized I was never going to be a professional cowboy or baseball player. So maybe the closest I could get was to sing about cowboys.”
Congratulations to Zach Top!