Carrie Underwood Makes Billboard Milestone Award Top 3

Carrie Underwood is holding it down for country music. After three weeks of fan-voting, she is the only country star remaining on the 2014 Billboard Milestone Award ballot. Luke Bryan didn't make it to the finals.

The country superstar is joined by U.K. pop artist Ellie Goulding and pop-rock group OneRepublic in the top three. The finalists were announced on Monday (April 21), the winner will be chosen and announced live during the award show on May 18.

The competition was stiff for the final three. They were originally competing against Imagine Dragons and John Legend and -- as mentioned -- Bryan. The important Billboard award criteria is that the artist must be original and have reached some type of chart milestone in the past year. Last year's Milestone Award winner was Justin Bieber.

Voting for the final three began on Monday at the Billboard website. The 2014 Billboard Music Awards will air live from Las Vegas on ABC at 8:00 PM ET.