Miranda Lambert is nominated once again for Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2017 CMA Awards, and she definitely deserves to win.

Lambert is certainly not new to the category; she set a new record in 2015, when she won Female Vocalist of the Year for the sixth consecutive year. She's taken home the award six times out of a whopping 10 past nominations, with 2017 being her 11th nod in one of the most important CMAs categories.

Lambert is among the most-nominated artists in this year's ceremony for the strength of her work on The Weight of These Wings, a complex double album that explores the emotional aftermath of her divorce from Blake Shelton. The album has received universal critical acclaim and has been certified platinum, and the strengths of the album are definitely among the reasons Miranda Lambert deserves to win Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2017 CMA Awards.

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    She's Matured

    Lambert has come a long way from the girl who set the CMA Awards stage on fire in a star-making performance in 2005. She's still got her trademark sass, but it's leavened with a new maturity on The Weight of These Wings, which contains the most personal and heart-wrenching singing she has ever delivered.

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    She Practically Owns the Category

    When it comes to Female Vocalist of the Year, in recent years the CMA might just as well change the name of Female Vocalist of the Year to the Miranda Lambert Award for Excellence. She's been nominated every year since 2007, and she won a record-setting six times in a row from 2010-2015, losing to Carrie Underwood last year. After a year off, Lambert seems poised to re-take her crown with her excellent work on The Weight of These Wings.

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    Her Diversity

    Lambert has always been a singer who would try just about anything, but she's truly come into her own with her latest album. She took a big commercial risk with The Weight of These Wings, drawing on country, rock, folk, Americana and more for a very ambitious mix that pushed her well beyond anything else we've heard from her as a singer before.

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    Her Vulnerability and Honesty

    Lambert built her career on a feisty, take-no-prisoners persona, but she has softened gradually over the years. She's at her most vulnerable on The Weight of These Wings in heart-wrenching, confessional songs like "Vice" and "Ugly Lights," and it's like seeing a new side of an old friend.

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    "Tin Man"

    There are many great songs on The Weight of These Wings, but "Tin Man" is surely the best of the lot. The simple, aching ballad features Lambert addressing the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, telling him how lucky he is that he doesn't have a heart to break. The powerful song is also nominated for Single and Song of the Year, and to hear Lambert's heart-wrenching performance of it live is like she's singing pages straight out of her diary.

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