George Strait won the top honor, entertainer of the year, at the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday night in Las Vegas. He took the fan-voted award for the second time - 25 years after he first won it in 1989.
The win comes five months after the 61-year-old singer won the same award at the rival Country Music Association Awards, an industry-voted show. Strait is a few months from finishing his final tour in June, spurring a round of nostalgia that’s come with a handful of trophies.
Fans showed their enduring love for Strait by giving him the award over arguably the genre’s top four stars: Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert and show co-hosts Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton.
Lambert and Keith Urban were the night’s top winners, taking three awards apiece. Lambert won her fifth straight female vocalist of the year award and the two teamed up to win vocal event of the year for “We Were Us.”
But it was Lambert’s husband, Shelton, and co-host Bryan who were on a winning streak Sunday night.
Bryan and Shelton deftly stole the show with a mix of self-deprecating, celebrity-skewering jokes and two performances apiece.
“Honestly, I think we’re the biggest celebrities in the room,” Shelton said during the show’s funniest moment - a recreation of Ellen DeGeneres’ selfie moment at the Oscars - and it may just be true.
They zinged Eric Church over the likelihood of finding marijuana in his dressing room, poked fun at Britney Spears (who performs on the Las Vegas strip) and ribbed Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, in the audience, about his team’s disappointing playoff record (Shelton and Bryan announced the 50th edition of the ACM Awards will be held at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium next year).
Each performed twice with Shelton offering a subdued but powerful version of his song “My Eyes,” playing an acoustic guitar while seated with Gwen Sebastian at his side, before returning flanked by Shakira on their duet “Medicine.” Bryan performed “Play It Again” while standing on a revolving replica of a vinyl album, then teamed with vocal duo of the year winner Florida Georgia Line on “This Is How We Roll.”
Lambert won single record of the year for “Mama’s Broken Heart,” co-written by Kacey Musgraves. Lambert also won her fifth straight female vocalist of the year award.
She teamed with Urban to win vocal event of the year for their “We Were Us” collaboration for which Urban won trophies as producer and performer. Urban won video of the year with Tim McGraw and Swift for “Highway Don’t Care.” The three wins Sunday night gave Lambert 18 trophies at the ACM Awards since she first won best new female artist in 2006.
She followed up her single record of the year win with a performance of her song “Automatic.”
The show was packed with performances that showcased country’s melding with rock. Lady Antebellum and their friend Stevie Nicks teamed up on a medley of their “Golden” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon.” Brad Paisley hosted a rockin’ pool party at the satellite ACM Fan Jam site with his new song “River Bank,” and Florida Georgia Line played rock cover “Stay” before returning to the stage to accept the vocal duo of the year award.
And Urban played his guitar-heavy hit “Even the Stars Fall for You.”
Strait got a standing ovation after offering a cinematic version of his song “I Got a Car” with impressionistic video images behind him meant to evoke youthful memories of drives on hazy summer days. And Lee Brice, whose song “I Drive Your Truck” won song of the year, also evoked memories on a stripped-down version of the emotional song, appearing all in black on a darkened stage with a stark white acoustic guitar.
Musgraves won album of the year for “Same Trailer Different Park” two months after taking the Grammy for country album of the year. Justin Moore won new artist of the year. It’s one of two fan-voted awards, along with top honor entertainer of the year.
The Band Perry won vocal group of the year, and Jason Aldean won his second straight male vocalist of the year award.
“This is really unexpected,” a black-hatted Aldean told the crowd. “It was a shock last year to win it and even a bigger shock this year, I think.”
Front Section, Pages 2 on 04/07/2014