With the Academy of Country Music Awards coming up on April 1st, I thought I'd take a moment or several to share my thoughts about the nominees and who I believe should win versus who I believe will. I'm thinking that I'll do a blog afterwards about what I thought of the show and all the winners and performers and all that. It'll be interesting to see how close I get in terms of the winners. I have a feeling that it'll be a good show this year and I'm so happy that Blake Shelton will be back to co-host with Reba McEntire. Reba's proven that she's more than capable of hosting the show herself, but I love Blake and I love watching them interact. Watching them is practically a show in and of itself, so it should be fun. I'll have to track down a list of who all is performing, though I won't be commenting on that until after the show. Now my focus is on the nominees. This is the first part of what'll end up being a four part series - it seemed like a good idea to break it up since there's a decent amount of ground to cover.
So let's get to it.
Before I begin, I want to remind everyone who knows and tell everyone who doesn't that the Entertainer and New Artist of the Year categories are fan voted. Starting at Noon on March 19th, you'll be able to go here, http://www.acmcountry.com/fan_voting.html, and vote for whomever who think deserves to win in both categories. That's Noon Eastern time, by the way. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the New Artist category later on, but for now I'm going to start off with the Entertainer of the Year category, going in the order that the list was posted in.
First the nominees:
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
If this award was going to be given to the person who has the best voice, it would have to go to either Blake Shelton or Chris Young. The other three have good voices, no doubt, but Blake and Chris are a cut above vocally. I believe that they are two of the best vocalist in any genre, let alone country. This one is hard for me to call. With no disrespect to Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley, I really don't see either of them winning. They both had good years; I'd say Jason, Blake and Chris had fantastic years. I can't say how much I love that Chris Young got nominated for this. I'm hesitant to rule it out, since there's a chance he might pull an upset and win. Jason is such a strong contender for this one, but I feel like it's Blake's to lose. I'm ridiculously torn on this one.
I was going to be lame and not call it for anyone, but I am tentatively calling it for Blake Shelton. Though I would not be surprised in the least if Jason got this and I do think Chris has a legitimate shot. I'm really, really curious to see how this turns out.
FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
So let's get to it.
Before I begin, I want to remind everyone who knows and tell everyone who doesn't that the Entertainer and New Artist of the Year categories are fan voted. Starting at Noon on March 19th, you'll be able to go here, http://www.acmcountry.com/fan_voting.html, and vote for whomever who think deserves to win in both categories. That's Noon Eastern time, by the way. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the New Artist category later on, but for now I'm going to start off with the Entertainer of the Year category, going in the order that the list was posted in.
First the nominees:
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Jason Aldean
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
Blake Shelton
Taylor Swift
It's always interesting to see who get nominated in this category since there's so many artists out there who deserve it. Some of whom never seem to make the cut, but that's another blog for another time. It's usually pretty easy to see why each person was chosen and this year is no exception. If the voting was based on who the most entertaining person of the bunch is, I'd say that the award would go to Blake Shelton. But there's a lot of things that go into deciding who deserves this. This is the big one and things like ticket and album sales need to be taken into account, along with the success of all their respective singles and what kind of show they put on. All of that matters. There's no question that all five nominees had great years last year. So who do I think will win?
It's always interesting to see who get nominated in this category since there's so many artists out there who deserve it. Some of whom never seem to make the cut, but that's another blog for another time. It's usually pretty easy to see why each person was chosen and this year is no exception. If the voting was based on who the most entertaining person of the bunch is, I'd say that the award would go to Blake Shelton. But there's a lot of things that go into deciding who deserves this. This is the big one and things like ticket and album sales need to be taken into account, along with the success of all their respective singles and what kind of show they put on. All of that matters. There's no question that all five nominees had great years last year. So who do I think will win?
I think it's a toss up between Jason Aldean and Taylor Swift. I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes I just get a sense when someone is making a move for a certain award. Call it a gut feeling, call it reading the signs in terms of the things they say in interviews or whatnot - whatever you want to call it, sometimes I can just tell. And if you ask me Jason Aldean is on the move. I think he wants this award and he wants it bad; he's the hungriest to win out of the five. Go on youtube and look up his My Kinda Party tour - this leg of the tour features brand new and more elaborate staging and lights. I've seen him before and while he's always put on a great show, it was always fairly low key in terms of production. He's reached an entirely new level of confidence and has taken steps to amp up his live show in a big way. I think this might just be his time to win.
The problem with this is he's up against Taylor Swift, who will not go down easily. If I'm not mistaken, her shows outsold each of the other nominees and she's the only one whose tour has gone to multiple continents. Not to mention how well her albums sell. Based on the footage I've seen, her show is practically a Broadway production with some Cirque Du Soleil mixed in. It's the kind of thing that's hard to ignore. She seems to be the obvious choice, all things considered, but the obvious choice is also the safest and that could work against an artist.
I'm going to be bold, perhaps, and call this one for Jason Aldean.
The problem with this is he's up against Taylor Swift, who will not go down easily. If I'm not mistaken, her shows outsold each of the other nominees and she's the only one whose tour has gone to multiple continents. Not to mention how well her albums sell. Based on the footage I've seen, her show is practically a Broadway production with some Cirque Du Soleil mixed in. It's the kind of thing that's hard to ignore. She seems to be the obvious choice, all things considered, but the obvious choice is also the safest and that could work against an artist.
I'm going to be bold, perhaps, and call this one for Jason Aldean.
MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Jason Aldean
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
Blake Shelton
Chris Young
If this award was going to be given to the person who has the best voice, it would have to go to either Blake Shelton or Chris Young. The other three have good voices, no doubt, but Blake and Chris are a cut above vocally. I believe that they are two of the best vocalist in any genre, let alone country. This one is hard for me to call. With no disrespect to Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley, I really don't see either of them winning. They both had good years; I'd say Jason, Blake and Chris had fantastic years. I can't say how much I love that Chris Young got nominated for this. I'm hesitant to rule it out, since there's a chance he might pull an upset and win. Jason is such a strong contender for this one, but I feel like it's Blake's to lose. I'm ridiculously torn on this one.
I was going to be lame and not call it for anyone, but I am tentatively calling it for Blake Shelton. Though I would not be surprised in the least if Jason got this and I do think Chris has a legitimate shot. I'm really, really curious to see how this turns out.
FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Sara Evans
Miranda Lambert
Martina McBride
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood
Up until this point I have understood why everyone who got nominated was nominated, but this one has me a little confused. Namely as to how Carrie Underwood got nominated when she really didn't do much last year, aside from singing with Brad Paisley on "Remind Me". There's no doubt that she's one of the best female vocalists in country music today, but it seems unfair for her to be included and for Reba McEntire not to be when the latter seemed to do more. As far the rest, Martina McBride is kind of a give in for this category and I was happy to see Sara Evans included since I feel like her voice is generally underrated. I would love for her to win this.
But Miranda Lambert has been on a roll lately and I just don't see it stopping yet. I'm going to call this for her.
And there we go! Stay tuned for the next parts, which you can expect very, very soon. I generally don't like to make promises in terms of when I'll post and I'm not going to pinpoint at exact time that the next parts are coming, but I have a feeling that I'll get through this little series, or whatever you want to call it, quickly. Comments are always welcome and I'd love to know what your thoughts are on these three categories. Anonymous comments are now accepted; I didn't realize they weren't beforehand. So if you have something to say, but feel a little shy, you can do it that way. Or let me know what you think on twitter. That works too!
Thanks for reading!
But Miranda Lambert has been on a roll lately and I just don't see it stopping yet. I'm going to call this for her.
And there we go! Stay tuned for the next parts, which you can expect very, very soon. I generally don't like to make promises in terms of when I'll post and I'm not going to pinpoint at exact time that the next parts are coming, but I have a feeling that I'll get through this little series, or whatever you want to call it, quickly. Comments are always welcome and I'd love to know what your thoughts are on these three categories. Anonymous comments are now accepted; I didn't realize they weren't beforehand. So if you have something to say, but feel a little shy, you can do it that way. Or let me know what you think on twitter. That works too!
Thanks for reading!
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