Last night country music held the CMA Awards show down in Nashville, Tennessee. This is known as “Country’s Biggest Night” and with stars like Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban on hand you can begin to see why. At the event, some of country’s biggest names took the stage to perform, present, and accept awards in all shapes and sizes. Awards were given out for best female and male vocalist, best new artist, best performer, and even best musician of the year. Below you will see a breakdown of all of the winners from the 2009 CMA Music Awards.
Single of the Year – “I Run To You” by Lady Antebellum
Song of the Year – “In Color” by Jamey Johnson
Vocal Group of the Year – Lady Antebellum
New Artist of the Year – Darius Rucker
Album of the Year – “Fearless” by Taylor Swift
Vocal Duo of the Year – Sugarland
Music Video of the Year – “Love Story” by Taylor Swift
Male Vocalist of the Year – Brad Paisley
Female Vocalist of the Year – Taylor Swift
Entertainer of the Year – Taylor Swift
Musical Event of the Year – Brad Paisley and Keith Urban
Musician of the Year – Mac Macanally
On this list, you will note some pretty big names like Brad Paisley and Taylor Swift. Taylor, taking away four awards last night, came home as the big winner of this year’s awards show. Taylor, a mere nineteen years old (she will be twenty on December 13, 2009) has had a share of the spotlight for the better part of the year. She has released a few albums with some major hit singles on them and has won various awards, appeared on a number of television shows, and been a guest on almost every late night talk show.
You might remember Taylor’s last awards show where Kanye West made an absolute fool of himself when he rushed on stage and took an award right out of Taylor’s hand. He proceeded to make claim that Beyonce was the one that deserved said award and proclaimed that she had “one of the best video of all time.” Kanye would later apologize for his actions and even spend some time crying on Jay Leno’s late night talk show, but still left a permanent scar on Taylor’s image. Taylor actually would later appear on the View joking about the situation with the talk show hosts.
So last night, in a room filled with singers and songwriters of her genre, Taylor had a lot more comfort in taking the stage not having to worry about another catastrophe. Taylor would accept four awards last night but did not manage to walk away without some negative remarks thrown her way. Thus enter Wynonna Judd.
You might be wondering what in the world Wynonna Judd could do to cause a stir. She is a long time country music super star and is a name known in nearly every household. So what did she do to upset Taylor? Well, the country legend, who was actually a presenter at last night’s show, has declared that Taylor Swift is nowhere near ready for so much success. She even said before the show, to USA Today, in regards to Taylor’s instant successes that, “It’s too much too soon.” I could not agree more.
I understand that some of you out there actually think that she is a good performer. You think that she is a good songwriter (that also goes to say that you think she writes all of her own lyrics). You think that she has a beautiful voice and is amazing on guitar. I get it; you think she is talented. And I will agree that I think she has a certain amount of talent and that she will be able to do something in her time spent in country music. But I have to agree with Wynonna that she is doing it way too early and she is going to hit a brick wall whether it is sooner or later.
Taylor did get the chance to share the stage with her long time idol, one Faith Hill. Hill presented the award to Taylor for Entertainer of the Year. This was a very special moment for Taylor as she has long cited Faith as an inspiration and an utmost idol in her career path as a country music singer. (Do you remember back in 2006 when Carrie Underwood was presented with Female Vocalist of the Year? When her name was announced Faith was seen, on camera, saying, “Wow,” when her name was read. Of course, Hill later said that she was just kidding but you could tell from her facial expressions that she was by no means joking. By the way, what ever happened to Carrie Underwood? Is she still performing?)
I did not watch the CMA Awards last night but I had the chance to follow it word for word, for the most part, on Twitter. Some of you might still not understand the power behind Twitter but I could follow one feed, from the CMA Awards, and learn anything and everything that I could ever want to know about what was going on down in Nashville. I knew who was performing on stage, I knew who was presenting the awards, and I knew who was winning the awards. I did not see a single moment of the awards show but I knew exactly what was going on. That is the power of social media
So to all of you Taylor Swift fans out there, enjoy it while it lasts. She will not be around forever. She is winning all of the awards that the big names, who are still around like Faith and Reba, have spent their entire careers hoping to obtain. In some cases these artists never reach center stage to receive the award. But Taylor, at nineteen years of age, has already won more than a handful of these awards. So what is next for Taylor? I guess only time will tell.
