The CMA Awards are Country's Biggest Night, and winning an award is something that artists are honored to have. Yet, it seems that after winning over and over, it gets to be repetitious sometimes, and even the acceptance speeches don't seem as fresh anymore. That's why I love it when the unexpected happens and people win that have never won before. Such was the case with Kenny Chesney.
Kenny has been recording for 12 years and it's a shameful fact that up until this year, he had never won a single CMA Award. That fact was rectified this year as Kenny won his first award for CMA Album of the Year for When The Sun Goes Down. This wasn't to be Kenny's first trip to the podium that night. He would later win the top award for Entertainer of the Year. In his acceptance speech for Entertainer of the Year, Chesney remarked, “I am so proud to be in Country Music. I love it with all my heart. I stay up at night thinking about how to make my show better. Thank y’all very much.”
Tim McGraw opened the show with a performance of "How Bad Do You Want It," complete with pyrotechnics. Later in the evening he won the CMA Single of the Year for "Live Like You Were Dying," which is the title cut of Tim's latest album. “The song came to me around Thanksgiving,” McGraw said backstage. “That’s when we sort of learned that Tug didn’t have a chance. We cut the song three weeks later and it wasn’t sad. It was something special.”
The song also won the songwriters, Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman an award for CMA Song of the Year. In his acceptance speech, Craig Wiseman joked, “I want to have Tim McGraw’s baby.” Nichols added, “The day Craig and I wrote this song, it started like it was any other day, now its been like no other day.”
Toby Keith made it a family event as he performed "Mockingbird" with his daughter Krystal. The performance was great, and Krystal definitely has taken after her dad in the vocal department. The song can be found on Toby's just released "Greatest Hits 2" album.
Martina McBride earned her fourth CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, tying her with Reba McEntire for most wins. Reba still holds the record for the number of consecutive wins in the category, as she won the award from 1984-1987. In her acceptance speech, Martina remarked, “When I was a little girl in Kansas, I had some big dreams. I don’t think I ever dreamed this big.”
Backstage in the pressroom, McBride was presented with a one-of-a-kind signature necklace from Johnathon Arndt Gallery of Jewels valued at more than $100,000.
Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss performed their four-time nominated song "Whiskey Lullaby." The song won in two of the categories it was nominated; Video of the Year, and Vocal Event. As Paisley accepted the award for Vocal Event, he quipped, “I want to thank Country radio for playing this song. It says a lot about our format when they’ll take a chance on a double-suicide drinking song.”