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In our continued coverage of the Academy of Country Music Awards we turn our attentions to the nominees competing for the grand prize of Top Male Vocalist.

The category features all the star studded musicians you would expect to find battling it out for the award. Last.fm Trends looks at the nominees’ track play count to see who may come out on top.

All nominees, except for George Strait who released two singles, had new albums out in 2010 – re-igniting life in their respective charts.

The total count for each artist can be seen below, with Brad Paisley and Keith Urban going neck and neck with 5,218,766 and 5,181,686 scrobbles, respectively.

Brad Paisley’s 2010 double-disc collection Hits Alive, released at the start of November, has been scrobbled 21,189 times, whilst Keith Urban’s Get Closer was released just a couple of weeks later and has already taken in 74,406 plays.

George Strait’s Twang, released a whole year earlier than the aforementioned releases, has been played just 74,116 times, proving that the balance in power in the category going into the awards is shared by Paisley and Urban.

The Academy of Country Music Awards take place on April 3rd. Until then, check back with Last.fm Trends every weekday as we continue our coverage in the lead up to the event.