Live blog: 2011 American Country Awards
7:00 p.m.: Co-host Trace Adkins, dressed in his usual all black, is performing one of his past smashes, “Honkatonk Badonkadonk” while a group of female dancers shake theirs around him. Carrie Underwood is singing along in the crowd. “Now for something completely different,” he says as the dancers shimmy offstage and he starts crooning “Just Fishin’.” Now the dancers are back, the electric guitars are rocking again, and Trace is doing “Ladies Love Country Boys.” The ladies end by surrounding him like a harem, while Trace intones “thank you ladies.” It’s an odd little medley, but if this show is anything like last year, that will be par for the course for the still-young ACAs.
7:05: Trace says he hosted the show last year and thought he did a pretty good job, but the “network people” didn’t feel like he followed the rules or the prompter too well. So they gave him a “co-host” to “keep him in line,” he says, noting that anyone trying to him in line is an opponent because those are fighting words. So 4’11″ Oklahoma native Kristin Chenoweth comes out with boxing gloves and a robe and starts dancing around him throwing punches. “Watch the below-the-belt stuff,” he says. “I have no choice but to go below the belt,” she says, showing off her slogan on her robe “Four Feet of Fury.” She is having him pull off her gloves so she can get her hands on “country’s sexiest man,” as determined by Country Weekly, and he tells her to stop it.
7:09: She’s challenging him to a singoff, winner gets to host, loser goes home to Louisiana. She’s bragging that she’s from Oklahoma and challenging him to sing “Oklahoma!” for the first round. “You’re pretty comfortable with those jazz hands you could be on Broadway.” He challenges her to sing “Honkytonk Badonkadonk,” so she throws off her robe to reveal a prodigiously padded rear and sings it in her best opera voice, with some guy dancers. “So it looks like I’m staying.” “This ain’t over yet, Chenoweth.” This is silly but it’s kind of fun too.
7:11: Josh Turner and Jordin Sparks are going to present the first award, which will honor some of country’s top ladies. But first the “American Idol” contender is asking Josh to sing one of his songs. That deep voice is pretty se
Single of the Year: Female
Sara Evans, “A Little Bit Stronger”
*Miranda Lambert, “Heart Like Mine”
*Reba, “Turn On The Radio”
Taylor Swift, “Mean”
*Carrie Underwood, “Mama’s Song”
xy and all the girls including Jordin are singing along. Of course, we’re not getting all these awards distributed very quickly.
Anyway, they’re gonna present single of the year: female to one of these fine ladies:
7:14: Winner: Carrie Underwood for “Mama’s Song.” “First off, I don’t even know what to do about that intro, that was awesome,” the Checotah says as she holds the commemorative guitar, which is given in lieu of a trophy at the ACAs. She’s effusively thanking the country fans for their support. I believe Carrie won 6 or so awards at the first ACAs, so we could see a lot more of her tonight. Of course, since she got her break on Fox’s “American Idol,” she maybe has a bit of a homefield advantage.
7:19: The Band Perry, who were just nominated for the Grammy for best new artist, are performing their latest hit “All Your Life” while the fans in the crowd wave glow sticks. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were able to win that Grammy, they are so hot right now. Kimberly is even rocking a dress with a tulle skirt that looks like it escaped relatively unscathed from 1989.
7:23: Kristin Chenoweth announces that they will be awarding an Artist of the Decade, based on MediaBase’s assessment of the most-played artist of the past 10 years. They’ll be counting down throughout the show the top 10 most-played artists, with the No. 1 getting the prize and performing live. No. 10 is Keith Urban, and No. 9 is Brad Paisley.
Didn’t they give an artist of the decade award on this show last year?
7:25: Comedian Bill Engvall and “Idol” runner-up Lauren Alaina are up to tell us a bit about the Telecaster guitars they’re giving away. Bill and Lauren fumble the hand-off and drop the nice guitar to the floor, but they’re still gonna name the single of the year winner. I think Thompson Square (including Miami, OK, native Keifer Thompson) has a great shot here:
Billy Currington, “Let Me Down Easy”
Tim McGraw, “Felt Good On My Lips”
*Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”
Chris Young, “Voices”
Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson, “As She’s Walking Away”
7:27: Winner: Chris Young for “Voices,” and he’s treating us to a performance of his winning song, which I absolutely adore. Plus, Keifer and wife Shawna of Thompson Square have 6 more chances tonight to win a guitar.
7:29: As Chris finishes up his performance and begins thanking the usual suspects, the announcer says he’s also been named breakthrough artist of the year. Good for him.
7:35: Two unbelievable things just happened at the ACAs: Garth Brooks, who has released maybe one single this millennium, is No. 8 on that artist of the decade countdown. And Trace just came out carrying Kristin on his chest in a big baby carrying, quipping, “I knew I’d end up carrying you on this show.”
They’re quickly tossing it to rodeo legend Larry Mahan, GAC personality Storme Warren and up-and-coming singer Hunter Hayes. They’re gonna present music video of the year
Sara Evans, “A Little Bit Stronger”
Jerrod Niemann, “What Do You Want”
*Blake Shelton, “Who Are you When I’m Not Looking”
*Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”
Josh Turner, “I Wouldn’t Be A Man”
7:39: Winner: Blake Shelton, who also wins music video by a male artist. Blake is saying hi to his dad back home because he’s had a rough couple of weeks, so he’s dedicating the award to his dad and telling him he loves him. Aw.
7:40: Eli Young Band is on to perform “Crazy Girl,” which has helped elevate them to a whole new level of success. It’s nice to see some Texas country represented here.
