Miranda Lambert Says It's an Honor to Go Up Against Carrie Underwood at CMA Awards (Exclusive)

Miranda Lambert is making CMA Awards history and couldn't be prouder! With seven nominations this year, Lambert is the most-nominated female artist in CMA history.

The "Little Red Wagon" singer is also up for the night's biggest award: Entertainer of the Year. Lambert and fellow country star Carrie Underwood are the first two female solo artists to be nominated in the category since 1979.

"That's pretty incredible and it's also very humbling to be the other one next to Carrie Underwood," Lambert told ET's Rachel Smith ahead of the awards show. "She's a force and I've always been a huge supporter and believer, and was very vocal last year about how I thought she should take it home. So if she does this year, I'll be the first one out of my seat."

As for making history with her seven nods, she adds it's "pretty crazy." "It means my life's work. It's literally what I've chosen to do with my whole life, and having that validation that your peers believe in what you're doing and the people in the industry believe in what you're doing and vote for you all these times and all these years, it means the world to me," she added.

Lambert celebrated her 37th birthday on Tuesday, a day before the awards show takes place, and snagging a CMA Award would be the perfect birthday gift.

"I want a CMA for my birthday," she teased, adding that she would put it on a "big mantle" that she will build in her new home.

During the celebration at Nashville's Music City Center, Lambert will also perform a stripped-down version of her latest single, "Settling Down." She filmed the video at her Nashville farm with her husband of almost two years, Brendan McLoughlin.

"It was his debut on film, which he killed it," Lambert shared. "I knew he would but the abs conversation wasn't really a conversation. It was like, 'You have to show the world that if you have it, honey.' That's what we have to do."

Aside from sharing the screen with her ab-solutely handsome hubby, the song is very special to Lambert, who said that it "encompasses everything" that she is living.

"I just feel like it kinda embraces the feeling we all have of when you first fall in love, when you first really find your person," she explained. "And now being the time that it is in 2020, everyone is sort of being forced into domesticated worlds and haven't been on the road for all this time. I think this song is very, very timely and has a great sentiment for that."

The 54th Annual CMA Awards will air live on Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. CT on ABC.

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