Taylor Swift and Def Leppard Rock the CMT Awards
This year's CMT Music Awards was jam-packed with talent and plenty of surprises. Alongside performances by Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and some youngster named Taylor Swift, the show included appearances by Def Leppard, T-Pain and the B-52s.
Swift, who took home awards for Best Female Video and Video of the Year, opened the show with a pre-produced piece that had her chatting with host Bill Engvall as a series of her dreams were acted out: Taylor on the Starship Enterprise; Taylor rapping with T-Pain; Taylor fighting Engvall for hosting duties to the 2009 CMT Music Video Awards. And while that last dream proved to never come true, it didn't matter; the night still belonged to Ms. Swift.
Between her pre-recorded
opening bit, her wins, her solo performance of "You Belong With Me" <i>and</i>
her show-closing spectacle with Brit-metal stalwarts Def Leppard, Swift pretty much found the spotlight at least every 30 minutes. But the fans, who voted for the winners in each and
every category, loved every second of it.
Another fan favorite, Sugarland
(who won for Duo of the Year), provided one of the biggest surprises of
the night when, instead of playing its highly-nominated song, "All I
Want To Do," the Georgia duo opted to cover "Love Shack" with the B-52's themselves giving the pair a hand on vocals -- a sight that got the crowd erupting in delight, proving to be a night highlight.
Keith Urban was also an omnipresent fixture during the show, but in a much more subtle way. After
his performance for "Kiss A Girl,' the Aussie singer/guitarist
collected an award with Brad Paisley (for "Start a Band") and then
showed off his impressive guitar prowess on Jason Aldean's live performance of "She's Country." Is it possible that Urban was Jimi Hendrix
in his previous life?
Another notable highlight was provided by Dierks Bentley, who took his dog Jake as his date to the
show. (It's a well-known fact that Jake has almost as many fans as
Dierks does.) Speaking of Dierks, he seemed genuinely surprised when his co-presenter, Melissa Peterman of CMT's The Singing Bee
decided to make her own dream come true and plant a big smooch right on his kisser. Clearly frazzled, Bentley sputtered, "That
was supposed to be on the cheek!" But we say, "Right on, Melissa!"
It may have been a night of strangely matched presenters and performers, but it gave the fans exactly what they wanted -- a grand celebration to honor country music's best. See below to hear some of
the night's big winners.
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Portions of album content provided by All Music Guide © 2011 All Media Guide, LLC ® 1999-2011 Rhapsody International Inc.
This was one of the best Cmt awards shows I have watched. It wasn't as boring as some of the previous ones and displayed some of the best talent in Country music. My favorite act of the night was definitely Taylor Swift and Def Leppard's performance of "Pour Some Sugar On Me." But I also liked Taylor's performance of "You Belong With Me" (which happens to be my favorite song of hers), Keith Urban's "Kiss a Girl" and Sugarland singing "Love Shack." The last one was definitely a surprise!! There was only one thing I didn't understand. Where was Carrie Underwood?? She is one of my favorites and I always look forward to her performances, but, sadly, she didn't perform this year. :( Besides that, I loved the awards this year. Great job to all the performers!!! =)
I ? Country Music!!!