9 Bold Country Music Predictions for 2024, Revisited

Last January, we tried to predict who the 2024 CMA Entertainer of the Year would be, and learned why it's not smart to bet money on these kinds of things before the trees begin to bud.

That was one of nine bold predictions we made for country music in 2024, and it wasn't our most embarrassing miss. There was a temptation to re-write our prediction for Oliver Anthony — who would notice?! — because what happened with him ended up being so far from what our team foresaw.

Apologies to Scotty McCreery, who we inexplicably wrapped into the "Rich Man North of Richmond" singer's narrative.

A generous accounting gives us five correct predictions out of nine. A more scrutinizing critic may argue that even Carrie Underwood's dastardly sheep could have gotten these five correct but hey, at least we swung the bat.

• Taste of Country named Cody Johnson's "Dirt Cheap" the No. 1 country song of 2024.
• Post Malone's F-1 Trillion album was chosen as the top country album of 2024.
• Toby Keith, Joe Bonsall and Kris Kristofferson were three Country Music Hall of Fame artists who died in 2024.

We also missed with Jelly Roll and Morgan Wallen predictions, but hit with Rascal Flatts, Toby Keith, Zach Top and Shaboozey. Scroll down to see all nine, followed by Taste of Country's Top 40 Country Songs of 2024.