Luke Combs Crowned Entertainer of the Year at the 2022 CMA Awards

Luke Combs is officially the Entertainer of the Year at the 2022 CMA Awards. He accepted the night's most coveted trophy with an emotional speech at the awards show on Wednesday night (Nov. 9).

Only the biggest stars are considered for this marquee category, so competition was fierce. The winning act beat out Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood and Morgan Wallen in order to claim the trophy.

Combs thanked country music, his wife and son during his short, show-closing speech.

"There is nobody in this category that doesn't deserve to be standing up here," he said. "I just cannot believe this."

"This is my fifth or sixth year at being at this award show and country sounded more country than it has in a long time tonight," he remarked.

Combs hung onto his Entertainer of the Year title for a second year, as he also won the trophy at the 2021 CMA Awards. Over the course of the past year, he's been steadily making his case for a repeat win: His newest album, Growin' Up, came out in June, debuting at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums Chart and keeping his hot streak of chart-topping singles going with chart-toppers like "Doin' This" and "The Kind of Love We Make."

In 2022, Combs also cemented his status as one of the genre's best touring musicians: He announced early on that he would not raise ticket prices, despite the overall rise in cost to attend shows, and on one occasion, he refunded an entire crowd due to the fact that his voice wasn't at its best. He's got no plans to slow down in 2023: He recently announced a massive world tour for next year, with a considerable North American itinerary as well as stops in Australia, Norway, Belgium, Ireland and more.

The 2022 CMA Awards aired live from downtown Nashville on ABC. Luke Bryan co-hosted the show with NFL legend Peyton Manning.