Well, we weren’t successful in helping Keith Urban score Entertainer of the Year at last night’s Academy of Country Music Awards. Kenny Chesney took the title for the fourth year in a row (then complained backstage that the award’s integrity had been compromised because it was now a "sweepstakes" voted on by the fans). Check out all the grateful winners here. Below, some of my favorite moments, with links where available (until Viacom has them yanked off of YouTube).
1. Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley’s tribute to Eddy Arnold: Judging from that clip of Arnold accepting his ACM Pioneer Award in 1984 – in which he tearfully said, "You have to forgive me, but I never want accolades. All I want to do is sing" – their intimate duet of "Make the World Go Away" was the perfect way to honor him. I thought Paisley sounded better here than he did in his earlier performance of "I’m Still a Guy." Underwood, meanwhile, rocked her solo effort. She opened the show with "Last Name," wearing an Elvis-inspired, bedazzled white jumpsuit.
2. Sugarland’s "All I Wanna Do": Is there a more joyful act in country music than Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush? Kudos to J. Net for sporting a black jumpsuit with controversial fringe from the kneecaps down. (I liked it better than Carrie’s.) Also, she gets props for later thanking their record label for having "big ones enough" to release their tearjerker "Stay" to radio when it had no drums.
3. Miranda Lambert’s performance of "Gunpowder & Lead": The only thing that would have made that better is if those flags had been burnt by the pyrotechnics and fallen to the floor when the gun shot went off. Next time! (Bonus points to her for mouthing "Holy s—" on her way to the stage to accept her award for Album of the Year.)
4. Taylor Swift’s "Should’ve Said No": Like it or not, the girl went for it. I know it’s a far cry from Britney working the pole, but seeing 17-year-old Swift (pictured) soaked on stage, with a Flashdance-style back light illuminating the water hitting her shoulders and flying from her tousled hair made me a little uncomfortable. Then again, so did her hoodied Avril Lavigne-esque anger. George Strait seemed to dig it. As did Kix Brooks, who said, "Dang, I was wantin’ to get out there in that water. Taylor gets to have all the fun." (Ronnie Dunn was speechless.)
5. Ten-time host Reba McEntire expounding on the differences between now and the first time she emceed, in 1986: "Back then, Roger Clemens wasn’t even interested in country music." Uncomfortable laughter from the crowd. "Hey, I don’t care who you are, that’s funny." She continued: "Back then, neither an African-American nor a woman were considered for President of the United States. Of course, they’re still not nominated for Entertainer of the Year either." You go, Miss Reba! She also had an irreverent take on Nicole Kidman’s pregnancy: "We all know, by now, that Keith is going to be a dad. Congratulations. I don’t want to go into all the details of how that all happened, but Nicole Kidman is definitely calling him Entertainer of the Year."
6. Sara Buxton’s "rhythm gasps" to Keith Urban’s "Tu Compania": I got that technical term from EW’s country music expert Chris Willman. (I didn’t even know that was Sara Buxton.)
7. George Strait’s smile during his "Shiftwork" duet with Kenny Chesney:Watching George smile makes me smile. Speaking of George, another note from Willman: "The funniest thing to me was that he never touched the strings on his guitar once during his ‘I Saw God’ song. Does he just have to have the guitar as a prop because he refuses to sing without it? Or was this one of those pre-recorded backing tracks that filled the night and he refused to strum-synch in protest?"
After the jump, three of my least favorite moments:
1. Rodney Atkins’ pitch-challenged medley: I like "If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" as much as the next person, but I don’t think I’ll be going to see him live anytime soon. Maybe his earpiece went dead? Who’s seen him in concert and can shed some light?
2. Montgomery Gentry. Sorry, I just don’t get ‘em.
3. Garth Brooks’ greatest hits medley: As Willman noted, "He might as well have just sung the title of each song, for how short the snippets were." At least we got to see Brooks take off his hat (gray hair!) and refer to Miss Reba as "Miss Yearwood" by mistake. (I bet the neckline of Trisha’s dress was still on his mind. Damn!)
Your turn.
It seemed like there were quite a few performers who had pitch problems: Rodney Atkins, Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler. Thinking back now, it was worse than pitch problems. They just could not sing. BTW, what was up with Kellie’s hair? It looked very thin and like she just woke up late and put a headband on.
Love, love, love “J-Net”! And Garth, please rethink your wardrobe choices. Jeans that tight only look good if your name is Keith Urban.
I loved Keith Urban’s performance. I also thought Taylor Swift’s exceptance speech was very sweet and heart felt.
i’m sorry, but on the “best performances by female artists who are getting rained on while singing,” taylor swift is no kelly clarkson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzuIIj0B0w8
I bet if you were to look George Strait’s performances from the last 8 years worth of award shows on youtube, you would only have about 30 seconds of him actually strumming his guitar in total. I have noticed this so many times and it drives me nuts!!! I love me some George though…
I bet if you were to look George Strait’s performances from the last 8 years worth of award shows on youtube, you would only have about 30 seconds of him actually strumming his guitar in total. I have noticed this so many times and it drives me nuts!!! I love me some George though…
Oh yeah, did anyone else find Pickler’s song choice ironic? She was singing all about being proud of who you are and not changing for anyone while showing those two bought balloons on her chest to full advantage.
Thought Taylor Swift’s revolutionary stage show was out of this world! She’s what country needs to announce that this ain’t your momma’s C&W anymore! Way to kick tail, girl!
Least favorite moment- Reba joining in on the Brooks and Dunn song and only knowing 5 words. Oh, and not knowing when to sing those 5 words.
How dare you call Kenny Chesney an “ungrateful” winner because he “complained” about the integrity of the entertainer of the year award. As a singer who sells out ENTIRE STADIUMS in a manner of minutes how was it even FAIR to have the fans vote for the winner? It’s taking away from the academy rewarding the person who truly works the hardest throughout the year based on a variety of factors. Fans pressing a button for you online has nothing to do with it at ALL! Stop taking his modesty about winning and spinning it to make him sound bad for stating the obvious! Love ya Kenny, can’t wait to see your amazing concert in Cleveland this weekend!
Taylor was awful. No way would she have made it through American Idol. Shows you can make anyone in the studio sound good. Taylor is always terrible live. And that rain performance and hoodie costume is so not country. Carrie in both her opening performance of “Last Name” and the tribute to Eddy Arnold with Brad was awesome. Nice of Kenny to win (when he shouldn’t have) because of the fans, and then bash the fact they voted for him. And why are no females nominated for Entertainer of the Year. Damn. Some of the females are the reason country is still selling, and yet they aren’t being recognized. Stupid!
Brandi, I think you’re right some of those performers last night simply can’t sing and should be banned from further tv appearances!
Most notably Taylor Swift who now uses everything she can to distract people from the fact SHE CAN NOT SING!
Regarding Rodney, and other pitch problems experienced by the artists…There were definite problems with the sound mixing, and it seemed like they had difficulty hearing themselves. If you watch closely, all of them (Rodney included) were touching and adjusting their ear monitors. At one point, Kellie Pickler obviously reached back and adjusted hers. It was particularly bad for Rodney, because there was some hesitation, and at one point I think he missed a line because he couldn’t hear where we was in the song. The artists could definitely sing – the mixing was so poor, and didn’t play well on TV.
I’ve never seen a Country artist lip-synch before. Why would the ACM allow Taylor to do that? Another Ashley Simpson in cowboy boots. Come on ACM, keep Country real.
I still can’t understand why a guy like Rodney Atkins gets air time on a major award show and yet at the same time a very talented and gifted artist like Blake Shelton is in the audiance …. wow.