If there’s one thing that’s usually certain about the Country Music Association Awards, it’s that whoever wins the top prize, Entertainer of the Year, will be someone who didn’t win another award all night. That was the case again this year, although uncertainty did figure in, in that it went in an upset to Keith Urban, who hadn’t picked off the competition since 2005. “I’m shocked beyond shocked,” Urban said, speaking for most prognosticators, too.

Maybe the only veteran as visibly surprised to be making a CMA Awards comeback was co-host Carrie Underwood, who won for best female vocalist, after having surrendered that prize to Miranda Lambert in seven of the eight previous years. “Thank you, God,” said a teary Underwood on the telecast. Backstage, later, she admitted, “I would be lying if I said that while I was recording this album (the recently released “Cry Pretty”) I didn’t want awards.” She referenced her very visible pregnancy in adding, “Hopefully I can be an inspiration to my children, and to other working moms. Because we got this.”

Another surprise, to some (if only because Chris Stapleton didn’t win it, again) was Kacey Musgraves’ first-time win in the album of the year category for “Golden Hour.” That particular category tends to be a magnet for “cred” wins, and this was no exception, with critical acclaim and other media attention having far outstripped radio play for an album that took Musgraves further outside of any kind of country box. “I imagined this land musically where it was possible to keep these elements of country that are intrinsic to my music, like pedal steel and banjo,” she said backstage, “but I wanted to explore this new frontier for myself with kind of electronic elements… I think this album has reached well beyond country music, but I wanted to give people who do love country music something, too.”

No surprise at all, then: the three trophies for Stapleton, the most of anyone for the night. Although he had to surrender the album category that had been his on his freshman and sophomore efforts, he more than made up for it by winning in divisions that hadn’t been his previously, with “Broken Halos” winning both single and song of the year. Additionally, for the fourth year in a row he picked up best male vocalist, a category any other competitor should probably just forget about for at least the next decade.

Best new artist went, as expected, to powerhouse vocalist Luke Combs, with strong competition from Midland and Old Dominion, bands that, as bands, may have canceled each other out. Combs enjoys good will as someone who built his own success in the streaming world before being picked up by Sony Nashville — and, as he pointed out in the press room after his win, he’s not the only one. “I think guys like myself and Kane (Brown) and Dan + Shay and Brett Young are lucky to be part of a wave of artists that have started on our own and been adopted by the Nashville system,” he said.