Brett Eldredge received two nominations at the upcoming 2016 ACM Awards: Male Vocalist of the Year and New Male Vocalist of the Year. Although Chris Stapleton already won for New Male Vocalist of the Year, Eldredge is still in the running for the other category -- a fact he says he can hardly comprehend.

"What I moved here to do is, I moved here to be a big vocalist," Eldredge told The Boot and other reporters at a recent media event. "I wanted to fight my way through the ranks, not knowing how hard it was going to be. All I wanted to do was sing; that’s all I cared about doing. And so, to get this nomination was just one of the biggest points of my career, to get that nomination at this point in the game."

Eldredge, who is joined in the Male Vocalist of the Year category by Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and Stapleton, says that just being nominated already makes him feel like a winner.

"It’s saying I’m among these giant vocalists in our genre, and I get to be one of those guys," Eldredge says. "It’s flattering, and it also just reminds me to go out there and keep writing songs that I can show my voice out, because that’s all I want to do, is belt them out."

Eldredge recently earned his fifth consecutive No. 1 hit, with "Drunk on Your Love," from his sophomore album, Illinois. The 30-year-old has co-written all five of his chart-topping tunes, which makes his success that much sweeter.

"It’s overwhelming to me, because when I moved to this town, when I was still in college, I didn’t hardly know how to write a song," Eldredge admits. "... If I had released a song that day I moved to town, of a song I wrote, you’d be like, ‘That’s the worst song I ever heard.’"

The 2016 ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 3, beginning at 8PM ET on CBS.

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