Wednesday night, Veteran’s Day, thousands of country artists and fans gathered in one spot to celebrate country music. The 43rd Annual CMA Awards was incredibly entertaining, emotional, and several people’s lives were changed forever.
Artists Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley were the hosts for the event. They added spice and humor to their pieces with many jokes about Kanye West thrown in for good measure. They had good reason to have them as the show seemed to be built around Taylor Swift. She performed twice, once at the beginning and once towards the end of the show. Her first performance showed some pitch problems but it may have been nerves. Her second performance was marginally better, with fans surrounding her singing the tune. Taylor walked away with four awards that evening for Female Vocalist of the Year, Music Video of the Year, Album of the Year, and the coveted Entertainer of the Year. Ms. Swift is the youngest person to ever win such an award.
Darius Rucker performed his single “Alright” and made some fans very happy as he went into the stands to dance with them. His vocal range isn’t as incredible as some, but the heart and soul he puts into his lyrics is what draws people in. Darius took away the New Artist of the Year award, making him the first African-American to take a CMA award since 1971.
Sugarland took their third consecutive award in the Duo of the Year category and the group Lady Antebellum swept up their first awards as a group in Single of the Year for “I Run to You” and Vocal Group of the Year. Jamey Johnson won Song of the Year for his deeply emotional “In Color”, Brad Paisley grabbed Male Vocalist of the Year and Mac Macanally won Musician of the Year.
The performances last night were strong. Kenny Chesney performed with Dave Matthews and Vince Gill performed with Daughtry which were both some odd pairings but yielded some lovely harmonies. Reba Macintire was as fantastic as ever. The most emotional (at least for me) performance of the evening was the farewell CMA performance of Brooks and Dunn. I grew up with their music and listening to this final performance brought tears to my eyes.
All in all it was a very good show. I’d like to offer my congratulations to all the nominees and winner this year as they all deserved their recognition.
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