The build up leading to the ACM Awards was tense to say the least. Whether you were a fan watching at home and rooting for your favorite country superstars, or an artist sitting nervously in one of those seats in Vegas, hoping to hear your name called, the ACM Awards were the talk of the country world.
And it didn’t disappoint.
All the stars showed up dressed in their finest and gave all their fans a show. Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire rocked the hosting gig, Shelton charming as ever, the viewers not being able to help but laugh at all his jokes. Reba was as steady as she always is. For someone whose been in the business as long as she has, it is no wonder why she is always asked to handle the hosting job year-after-year. She knows the history, she knows how to keep the show moving and Reba always has a witty reply to match any jokester that pairs with her.
The ACMA’s also featured a lot of new music by country’s elite. Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton, Taylor Swift, Martina McBride, and Jason Aldean all performed new songs to the masses, while guys like Brad Paisley and Keith Urban featured songs that are relatively new to the country airwaves.
Vegas also featured some incredibly inspiring performances. Darius Rucker performed with the ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp, a camp that takes place in Nashville every summer to assist people with developmental disabilities, and did so to a song the camp helped write. “Music From the Heart,” which was also written by Brett James and Chris Young, left very few with a dry eye in the audience. The moment was easily one of the best ever in ACMA history, and was met with a huge round of applause.
Carrie Underwood performed her hit single “Undo It” along with Aerosmith frontman, Steven Tyler, and although their performance did have its awkward moments (Tyler went to kiss Underwood, but she wasn’t having any of it), the duo did put on a good show. The pair also sang Aerosmith’s smash hit “Walk This Way,” it actually being better than what I was expecting.
The best performance of the night went to Zac Brown Band and James Taylor. With all due respect to Darius Rucker and the Lifting Lives Music Camp, which really was amazing, ZBB and James Taylor were goosebumps up-and-down your body good. The gang sang ZBB’s current single “Colder Weather,” then made the flip to James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” a song country artists Joey and Rory were seen mouthing as it was performed. Every country award show seems to have that one performance that everyone is talking about the next day, well along with “Music From the Heart,” ZBB and James Taylor were that performance.
But, of course, the award shows are all about the award winners and there were plenty of those to go around.
Miranda Lambert brought home the most hardware, reeling in four ACM Awards for Single Record, Song and Video of the Year for “The House That Built Me,” and Female Vocalist of the year.
Mainstays Lady Antebellum and Sugarland won the Top Vocal Group and Top Vocal Duo, respectively, while Lady A also locked up the Album of the Year award for “Need You Now.”
On top of giving an electrifying performance at the end of the night, Zac Brown Band also won Vocal Event of the Year for “As She’s Walking Away”(an award they shared with Alan Jackson, whom is featured on the song).
The Band Perry, who won Top New Group, competed against Top New Solo Artist, Eric Church for bragging rights as the Top New Artist -- a competition they won. The pure excitement on their faces was great to watch, as you could tell they truly appreciated being rewarded for all of their hard work.
Perhaps a some what baffling award winner was Brad Paisley for Top Male Vocalist, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Brad himself seemed surprised, maybe even a little disappointed (he didn’t say that, he just didn’t seem into it when he was accepting the award) for the other acts, seeing as Brad has won the award so many times. It certainly seemed like it was Blake Shelton’s, or Jason Aldean’s time to shine, but Brad Paisley is among country music’s biggest acts and he deserves any of the accolades he gets.
Taylor Swift brought home the top prize, winning the Entertainer of the Year award, in what shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to viewers. Swift has the biggest fan base in country music, being a multi-genre artist. With so many of her fans in full force on Twitter, campaigning for her to win EOTY, Taylor probably had the award locked up before the event even started. Don’t try to tell anyone she didn’t earn it. Swift has sold over 20 million records, is constantly touring all over the world and always makes time for the millions of fans that hold her so dear to their hearts.
And so to it was country music’s night in Las Vegas. The stars were stunning, the music was rocking and the hard work of so many was rewarded with one of country’s biggest honors. While all good things must come to an end, at least we will have another year of the highest quality of music to build up to next year’s ACM Awards.
Photo source: By minds-eye (Taylor Swift) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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