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I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: How can Keith Urban not be Entertainer of the Year? Seeing him long ago fronting The Ranch and several times as a solo artist, no one can touch his show. The charisma, energy, musicianship, voice, and overall performance is pure entertainment. He is a welcomed combination of artistry and commerce in a world where talent typically falls on one side or the other.
And let’s not forget the songs, which Bob Lefsetz writes about in his recent blog post. He was at the show in L.A. and shares the experience. I love this line: “The Nashville market is the last bastion of real music. Actual songs played on real instruments. And that’s what you got with Keith Urban, real music.”
Check out the entire post HERE.
Here are the Academy of Country Music Radio Winners that were announced today:
National On-Air Personality:Lon Helton, CMT Country Countdown USA
Major Market Personality: Dorsey Gang, KSCS/Dallas
Large Market Personality: JD Cannon, WFMS/Indianapolis
Medium Market Personality: Andy Ritchie, Alison West and Jimmy Holt, WIVK/Knoxville
Small Market Personality: Brent Lane and Dana Cervantes, WYCT/Pensacola, FL
Major Market Station: WSOC/Charlotte
Large Market Station: WSIX/Nashville
Medium Market Station: WIVK/Knoxville
Small Market Station: WYCT/Pensacola, FL
The ACM’s will take place on Sunday April 5th in Las Vegas. Congratulations to the radio winners and all the nominees.
So Rascal Flatts getting shut out of the Country Music Award nominations is a big deal apparently. It has also previously happened to Toby Keith and Tim McGraw at the height of their popularity too. One of the leading country format trades, Country Aircheck, published a front page story in their issue this week. Here are a couple of excerpts:
“…..but far more insidious and potentially damaging is the view from many in the industry that the voting process is flawed and skewed to the mega-labels. Some point out that the commonality among McGraw, Keith and the Flatt’s is their stand-alone label affiliation. The inference is that artists in those situations cannot overcome the perceived block-voting believed to be taking place in major label groups.”
“…..the exclusion of Tim and Toby in the past and the Flatts this year simply doesn’t pass the “smell test.” While intense examination of the ballots does not produce a smoking gun, the preponderance of evidence seems to suggest there is, at least, something within the process that puts some artists at a distinct disadvantage.”
This is not news to those of us who have worked in this business for a good amount of time. There are major label groups in town that tend to sweep a majority of nominations and end up having the champagne flowing at the post show party as they celebrate all of their winners. Although block-voting is now prohibited, many can’t help but think that certain powerful people and label groups in this town have overwhelming sway as to what artists get nominated and which get prime performances.
Let me give you an example of something a friend of mine experienced many years ago while working at a major label. I will withhold the name and company.
Since the company paid for membership dues, nearly every employee at this company would receive nomination ballots for ACM and CMA awards. The instructions to employees were to not fill them out and take the ballot to the head of the class, where they would be completed by a single person. That particular individual would then check them all off in exactly the same manner. Certain artists would receive straight ticket votes, which was to obviously give them an advantage over other competitors. If this is the definition of block-voting, then that’s what it was.
I don’t know how well it actually worked, but you can imagine the impact it made on skewing those vote totals. It was just another part of the industry that made me uneasy. It made me uneasy because I was also part of the same company at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in supporting my artists, but to try and hijack my opinion about what I thought was the best our format had to offer, well……I just couldn’t play that game. My friend and I refused to turn our ballots over each time they were requested.
So, maybe there are other games going on right now. I wouldn’t doubt it. Some people will stop at nothing, including outright cheating, to win. But to say that there must be something wrong if a certain popular artist doesn’t automatically get the expected nominated by their peers (not fans mind you), may be presumptuous. After all, Alison Krauss is one of the best female voices in country music, any music actually, and she doesn’t always make it to the final round. I’m glad she did this year. There are many other examples as well – and you can always start with “Entertainer of the Year”. One or two nominees in that category baffle me year after year and they end up excluding other more deserving finalists who are far more entertaining.
If this vote was indeed legitimate, maybe our peers are sending a message. Are they purposefully shaking things up to make it more interesting and allow fresh emerging talent to enter the proceedings? If the vote is not legitimate, then the CMA has to continue to fight the good fight because the same people will try to break the rules to win at every moment.
The Tennessean has more on the exclusion of Rascal Flatts here.
The Academy of Country Music Awards were held in Las Vegas tonight and here is a rundown of the winners……
Entertainer of the Year: Kenny Chesney
Top Male Vocalist: Brad Paisley
Top Female Vocalist: Carrie Underwood
Top Vocal Group: Rascal Flatts
Top Vocal Duo: Brooks & Dunn
Top New Male Vocalist: Jack Ingram
New Female Vocalist: Taylor Swift
Top New Duo or Vocal Group: Lady Antebellum
Album of the Year: “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” Miranda Lambert (way to go Frank Lidell and Mike Wrucke!!!)
Single Record of the Year: “Stay” Sugarland
Song of the Year: “Stay” Sugarland/Jennifer Nettles
Video of the Year: “Online” Brad Paisley/Mark Kalbfeld, Peter Tilden; Jason Alexander
Vocal Event of the Year:“Find Out Who Your Friends Are” Tracy Lawrence, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney
For a complete list of all the big 2008 ACM winners for all categories go here.
The Academy of Country Music has announced the nominations for the categories, which, due to time constraints, will not be televised during the show. Congratulations to all of the radio stations and individuals up for an award. Click on the following link to see all of the nominations……. Read the rest of this entry »
The finalists for the ACM Awards came out this morning and Emerson Drive picked up nominations for Group of the Year and Song of the Year for “Moments”.
Also, congratulations to my good friend Mike Wrucke who co-produced the Miranda Lambert project which is up for Album of the Year and her song “Famous In A Small Town” which is competing for Single of the Year. Nice work Mike!
Go here for a complete list of nominees.
