Cole Swindell isn't about the tell you he's fine just being nominated for New Artist of the Year at the 2015 ACM Awards - he wants to win.

Earlier this month, the singer released a video asking for fans to vote for him to win the award and he's hoping is plea with pay off, telling The Boot that he's in it to win it.

“I want to win it for me and my band, but, you know, the fans and all of you guys that have supported me, country radio as well," he says. "I want to win it and have a chance to represent this format that means a lot to me. But there’s three great nominees, so whoever wins it, honestly it’s going to be great. But I do want to win it.”

Swindell has some stiff competition against Thomas Rhett and Sam Hunt for the honor and he says he's thought about how he will react regardless of the outcome - win or lose.

“I’ve thought about both of those. I’m honest - I really have. And how funny, I mean, what do you do when you really are disappointed that you didn’t win, but you’re happy for your friend, you know?" he says. "So that’s gonna be, I don’t know, we may have to practice some[thing]. That and the acceptance speech too - I don’t want to jinx anything, so I might have to wing it, but then again, you don’t want to forget the folks that you need to be thanking up there. I think if I was prepared, the way I’m gonna be feeling’s going to erase all that anyway.”

All three of the nominees are set to perform during the evening, but Swindell says the nerves haven't hit him quite yet.

“[I'm] not [nervous] yet, but I know I probably will be," he says. "Just walking into sound check yesterday kind of let me know that this is real.”

Fans can vote for New Artist of the Year once per day through 8PM ET on April 19 — the start of the 2015 ACM Awards broadcast — at VoteACM.com.

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