|
Taylor Swift has a new pair of buckles to show fans this year as "Our Song" earned her Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year at last night's C-M-T Music Awards at the Curb Events Center in Nashville.
In accepting the night's top honor, an overjoyed Taylor said, "I want to thank everybody on MySpace, all the people who have made fan sites for me. I don't even have a fan club, so you guys have done so much for me. I can't even believe this right now." Taylor was joined onstage by Trey Fanjoy, the director of the "Our Song" clip, who Taylor quickly credited with the video's concept. The award came with a cash award for the winner's favorite charity -- Taylor said she's donating her portion to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, while Trey is giving her share to MusiCares, the Grammy connected charity for musicians in need.
The Video of the Year category was awarded by fan voting done during the show. In fact, the final category didn't take shape until early in the broadcast, when the final four -- Taylor's "Our Song," Brad Paisley's "Online," Kenny Chesney's "Don't Blink," and Sugarland's "Stay" were announced as those making the cut.
Taylor also picked up Female Video -- which left her appearing as shocked as she did when she won Breakthrough Video last year. Taylor took the buckle on tour with her last year, and says that more than 100-thousand fans had their picture taken with it.
Taylor was also a presenter, awarding this year's Breakthrough Video buckle to Kellie Pickler, who accepted via satellite from Scottsdale, Arizona. "This is the first time I've ever won anything in my life. Thank you American Idol, you are the rocket that launched my career." "I Wonder" also earned Kellie two other awards -- Tearjerker Video and Performance of the Year for her emotional rendition of the song at the C-M-A Awards.
Trace Adkins won Male Video of the Year for "I Got My Game On." He said, "I'm having a good year. So far it's been great." Trace also said he's "never felt support from the fans like I'm feeling this year." It could have something to do with his success and extra exposure on Celebrity Apprentice.
Group Video of the Year went to Rascal Flatts' "Take Me There," which beat a field that included their clip "Stand." After thanking the fans, Jay DeMarcus joked, "We're glad we beat that other band, Rascal Flatts. They were stiff competition." Gary LeVox continued the night's worship of co-host Miley Cyrus by thanking the starlet "for our tickets to the show tonight."
Sugarland's recent winning streak continued as they took Duo Video of the Year for "Stay."
Bon Jovi and LeAnn Rimes earned Collaborative Video of the Year for "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore." In accepting, LeAnn said, "I didn't expect this at all, and I wish Jon was here tonight -- I had a lot of fun rolling around with him in bed."
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant collected Wide Open Country Video of the Year, which honors an artist from outside the country music mainstream, for their duet "Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)." The Led Zeppelin singer said, "I'd like to say how peculiar it is to be here. But it's great -- it's a great honor to have made a record in Nashville that sounds so good."
Two of country's funny fellas, Brad Paisley and Rodney Carrington, earned buckles for tickling folks' funny bones. Brad's Comedy Video honor came for "Online," while Rodney grabbed Supporting Character for his work in Trace Adkins' "I Got My Game On."
The show had plenty of cute moments featuring hosts Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus, but there was nothing that topped the opening skit, which featured Trace in a quest to get show tickets for his daughters -- a pair of huge Miley fans. As Trace searched for tickets -- including a call to Miley -- Miley fielded calls from celebrities looking for the hard-to-get tickets, including all three presidential contenders -- John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In case you were worried, the scalper who was furnishing tickets to folks like Trace and Gretchen Wilson was none other than Miley's pop, Billy Ray. |