The 2016 ACM Awards' red carpet will be swarming with country stars in their best garb come early April. The awards will be handed out, and there will be exciting wins and disappointing losses -- but there have been some of those already, thanks to Monday's (Feb. 1) announcement of this year's nominees.

Eric Church and Chris Stapleton are the leaders of the pack this year: Both singers earned five nods, with Church getting a big nomination for Entertainer of the Year and Stapleton receiving one for Album of the Year -- noms that came as a bit of a surprise (albeit a good one) to many country music fans. However, some fans were unpleasantly surprised by Blake Shelton's lack of nominations. The singer, for his part, has remained publicly optimistic, tweeting that he'll just have to "do better" and even joking that not being nominated gives him a night off.

The Male Vocalist of the Year category has three fresh names in it, and while Luke Bryan isn't one of the nominees, Brett Eldredge is. Some fans may call Bryan's omission from the category a snub, but he isn't the only one missing from the ACM Awards' various categories (the Band Perry, Lady Antebellum and Carrie Underwood, anyone?).

Click through the photo gallery above to find out more about the surprises and snubs among the 2016 ACM Awards nominations. The 2016 ACM Awards are set to air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 3, beginning at 8PM ET on CBS.

More From TheBoot