Taylor Swift is youngest to ever win CMA's top award
November 11, 2009 | 9:08
pm
The Country Music Assn. selects the 19-year-old as entertainer of the year over veteran male singers. She wins in all four categories she is nominated.
The CMA bypassed long-serving veterans including George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban in selecting Swift the youngest recipient ever of its top honor, entertainer of the year, an award meant for the musician who exhibits the most impressive all-around performance during the preceding year.
By that criteria, it was hard to argue with their choice: The 19-year-old has sold more than 10 million albums in the three years since she released her debut, making her the biggest thing in country and pop music.
Swift won all four categories in which she was nominated, taking home trophies for album of the year, female vocalist and music video.
"Thank you for saying that you like my diary," Swift told voters, and by extension, fans, when she collected the best album prize for 2008's "Fearless."
The CMA bypassed long-serving veterans including George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban in selecting Swift the youngest recipient ever of its top honor, entertainer of the year, an award meant for the musician who exhibits the most impressive all-around performance during the preceding year.
By that criteria, it was hard to argue with their choice: The 19-year-old has sold more than 10 million albums in the three years since she released her debut, making her the biggest thing in country and pop music.
Swift won all four categories in which she was nominated, taking home trophies for album of the year, female vocalist and music video.
"Thank you for saying that you like my diary," Swift told voters, and by extension, fans, when she collected the best album prize for 2008's "Fearless."
In an era of declining music sales, the CMA voters chose to reward Swift despite her youth and, this year anyway, abandoning the axiom that the country establishment is slow to embrace the new.
The Nashville-based CMA characteristically has been more tradition-minded than the West Coast-based Academy of Country Music and certainly more so than the Grammy Awards-bestowing Recording Academy. Yet in addition to Swift's perfect batting average for the evening, the organization gave top awards to Darius Rucker, former leader of rock group Hootie & the Blowfish, who struck platinum with his countrified solo album "Learn to Live."
Freshman trio Lady Antebellum upstaged Rascal Flatts in being named group of the year, and duo Sugarland bested long-reigning twosome Brooks & Dunn, who recently announced that they will retire following a 2010 tour.
That left just two awards for singer, songwriter and guitarist Paisley, who had come into the show with a field-leading seven nominations. He won for male vocalist and musical event, an award he shared with Keith Urban for their duet "Start a Band."
New blood also reigned in the single and song of the year categories, with awards to Lady Antebellum for the single "I Run to You" and Jamey Johnson for his "In Color," which the country maverick wrote with Lee Thomas Miller and James Otto.
Johnson demurely thanked the CMA voters, saying "I never thought you guys would let me come to things like this."
As much as industry attention had been focused on the entertainer category because of Swift's presence as a 19-year-old female upstart contending with a bunch of male veterans, it's nearly as big an upset that Lady Antebellum swept past Rascal Flatts in the vocal group contest.
The Eagles might have dwarfed all comers in the category in terms of concert ticket revenue, but Nashville looks at the L.A. boomer rock group as, well, an L.A. boomer rock group. Lady A's win signaled the country establishment's readiness this year to look to country's future more than its proven quantities.
randy.lewis@latimes.com
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Photo: Faith Hill, from left with Tim McGraw as Taylor Swift accepts the CMA Award for entertainer of the year. Credit: Getty Images
taylor swift CAN NOT sing. She is horrible. Why would anyone give her an award. she makes me puke.
Posted by: k | November 11, 2009 at 09:41 PM
Good for her. Excellent edition to country music. Way to go, Taylor!
Posted by: Kelly | November 11, 2009 at 10:33 PM
Sure Taylor Swift?? You're kidding...Only because the young kids junior high, grade school and some high school are buying her records. Other than that not interested...Sad...She's not that good and will fade out as she gets older....
Posted by: maizieful | November 11, 2009 at 10:34 PM
This was a joke right??? I was hoping I was going to wake up this morning and find out it was all a dream and that the girl who can't sing a note and does a choreographed pop show did not win all these awards!! Sickening! Her performances on the show were ridiculous! What is wrong with the country music association??? I have no faith in these awards shows anymore! I guess money talks and not talent!
Posted by: GLoria | November 12, 2009 at 05:49 AM
Miranda Lambert should have won female vocal. I am still shocked at last night's win of Taylor Swift. I think Kanye was stupid to bother Taylor.
Swift really did not deserve the female vocal award at the CMA'S, the voters are fools. Taylor Swift's album "Fearless" is a dreadful album, she really did not deserve the win. The reason for her high sales is that kids are buying her cd it not fair to other artists.
Carrie Underwood or Lambert really deserved it.
I still think the grammy voters are smarter than that and they can careless about sales.
Last year Carrie Underwood swept the CMA's and she recieved no general field grammy nomination and she is a BETTER singer than Taylor.
Taylor performances last night at the CMA'S proved how bad her vocals are.
George Strait, Paisley and Urban will fight it out in the male categories. But i think Strait will take the grammy for male vocal, country song and Album. If Strait gets into AOTY in the General Field then i think Paisley or Urban could win the grammy for best country Album.
Posted by: Sarah | November 12, 2009 at 08:05 AM
OMG... and we thought only the Queen of England used upholstery and old theatre curtain material for clothing. WHO dresses these....'entertainers?'
Posted by: Robert NO longer in LA | November 12, 2009 at 08:17 AM
Worst show ever, Taylor should give back her undeserved awards. Taylor Swift performances was bad. I hope grammy voters shut her out!
Posted by: Gary | November 12, 2009 at 09:25 AM
Taylor Swift may have one of the WORST voices I have ever heard. It literally grates on my nerves. It's absolutely shocking that she won all of the awards she did!! The true talent in country music lost to someone who may be sweet, but in no way better than they are!!
Posted by: Michelle Chittenden | November 12, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Judd bitter over Swift's CMA sweep
Wynonna: "Too Soon" For Taylor's Win
Posted Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:49am PST by Wendy Geller in Viva NashVegas
At last night's CMA Awards show, host Brad Paisley likened the country community to one big family--"George Strait plus eight," he joked..
And, truth be told, he's not too far off the mark. Nashville is an insular and protective community--sure, it's full of gossip and pettiness and all the other things you find in any tight-knit group. But, as Paisley humorously noted, most of the time everyone gets along pretty well. .
Most of the time. .
What's up now, you ask? Well, country legend Wynonna Judd (a presenter at last night's show) has declared that Taylor Swift--who won the CMA's top honor, Entertainer of the Year--is nowhere near ready for so much success. .
The country legend, one-half of famed mother-daughter duo the Judds, spoke to USA Today before the awards show, commenting in regards to Swift's extraordinary sweep of 2009: "You want my honest comment? It’s too much too soon." .
"Mom [Naomi Judd] and I rode in a car for the first year of our career to visit radio stations," Judd continued. "There was a making of the star, there was a rising up, and the fans went with us..
"Now it’s over coffee breaks, the success, almost. It's like the girl who wins an Oscar and she's under 20. What do you do from here?".
Well, well. Truth be told, many music fans out there--rightly or wrongly--are saying basically the same thing. However, this sort of commentary tends to not go over very well in the country world. .
Remember back in 2006, when Faith Hill gasped a theatrical "WHAT?" on camera in response to Carrie Underwood's CMA Female Vocalist of the Year win? Hill claimed to be just joking around, but the validity of her humor came under scrutiny and the incident made out-of-proportion national waves. (It blew through the roof on Yahoo!'s Buzz Index, which tracks hotly searched stories on the web--and even national broadcaster Don Imus talked about it on his show.).
Carrie Underwood, now Taylor Swift. .
For what it's worth, Hill presented Swift with her Entertainer of the Year award, and did so most graciously. (Swift, who has cited Hill as her childhood idol, was incandescent at the moment.).
Also, just as an aside--what is it with the Judds and rising young talent? Naomi Judd recently put twin-sister duo Kate & Kacey (who, incidentally, are on Swift's record label) through the wringer during their stint on CMT's reality series Can You Duet. According to the twins, Judd, a judge on the program, was so hard on the pair that they ended up writing a song about the incident titled "You're Not My Judge." .
Kacey Coppola termed the experience with Naomi to be "disappointing.".
"Kate and I have looked up to the Judds for as long as I can remember," she told Yahoo! Music. .
No need for the sour grapes, Judds. If anyone's proven their mettle in the entertainment industry, and can afford to be benevolent to the newcomers--it's you guys. .
And, take a lesson from Faith Hill (and, hey, George Jones--who got skewered last week for his comments about "new country"). Watch it. .
There's no problem with stating an honest opinion, but like I said, this sort of thing just tends not to float too smoothly with the country fans at large.
Posted by: Sarah | November 12, 2009 at 11:39 AM
JUDD: 'SWIFT SHOULDN'T HAVE WON TOP COUNTRY AWARD'Country music veteran WYNONNA JUDD has hit out Country Music Association (CMA) officials for naming TAYLOR SWIFT Entertainer of the Year, insisting it's "too much too soon" for the teenage star.
The Love Story hitmaker, 19, made history at the CMA Awards on Wednesday night (11Nov09) when she became the youngest person ever to win the prestigious accolade.
Swift stole the Nashville, Tennessee show by taking home gold in every category she was nominated in, including Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year for Fearless and Music Video of the Year for Love Story.
But Judd, 45, is not convinced the singer fully deserves to win the award at such a young age - because she will have nothing to aim for in her career if she lands all the big prizes so early on in life.
She tells USA Today newspaper, "You want my honest comment? It's too much too soon. Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once. It's just too much of a good thing too soon.
"My thing is, being a home-school mum, I want kids to earn it, and I think some time... 'cause mum and I rode in a car for the first year of our career to visit radio stations. There was a making of the star, there was a rising up, and the fans went with us.
"Now it's over coffee breaks, the success, almost. You have to play catch up... It's like the girl who wins an Oscar and she's under 20. What do you do from here?"
Posted by: Sarah | November 12, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Taylor Swift killed her grammy hopes with those dreadful performances last night. She better pray grammy voters were not watching. Just cross her off your list for a possible AOTY. I think George Strait will get nominated for Album of the year with Whitney Houston.
Posted by: Gary | November 12, 2009 at 05:40 PM
all you people are so jealous of her, shes got it all. stop hating, jesus doesnt like that;)
Old people..haha, you have to remember Conway Twitty cant win because he's dead. haha:D
Posted by: Tori | November 14, 2009 at 04:21 PM