Country music lovers rejoiced Wednesday night during the 2014 CMT Music Awards. The annual fan-voted award show celebrates country music stars, videos and television performances. And this year, the ladies of Nashville took the lead.
Carrie Underwood was crowned queen of the night. For her third year in a row, Underwood took home the night’s top honor, Video of the Year, for her song “See You Again.” While the country starlet is no stranger to the spotlight – an American Idol champ, with more than 15 million albums sold, and over a dozen number one singles – Underwood was still humbled by her win.
In her less than minute long acceptance speech, the singer thanked her fans profusely, and interrupted herself to declare: “I’m nervous! My heart’s still beating really fast.” Throughout the course of Underwood’s nine years making country music she’s won 11 belt buckle trophies from the CMT Music Awards.
To close out the evening Underwood performed “Somethin’ Bad” alongside Miranda Lambert, who lead the pack with six nominations. The former Nashville Star contestant took home the Best Female Video of the Year award for “Automatic.”
“Thank you so much to the fans, I really appreciate this guys. […] I love country music, I love my job,” Lambert said in her acceptance speech. The 30 year-old singer seems to have her eye on world domination. According to her website, as of yesterday, June 5, Lambert opened up her third Pink Pistol Boutique in Nashville. Her other two shops are located in Lindale, TX and Tishomingo, OK. Red 55 Winery is also located in her Texas hometown, and is another of Lambert’s entrepreneurial ventures.
During her speech, she also thanked “Automatic” director, Trey Fanjoy. Coincidentally, Fanjoy is one of the top country music video directors in the industry, and her work has been nominated for multiple CMT Awards, including Taylor Swift’s 2009 “Love Story” video.
Rounding out the ladies’ success of the night, the prize for Breakthrough Artist of the Year went to newcomer (and the only
female artist nominated in this category), Cassadee Pope. Blake Shelton – Lambert’s husband, and winner of male video of the year – awarded Pope her belt buckle after coaching her all the way to the winner’s circle during season three of The Voice.
The ever lovely Kristen Bell, of Frozen, hosted the awards ceremony for her third year in a row. However, this was her first time taking on the job solo, but she wasn’t too worried about it, she said in a press conference earlier this week. The multi-talented actress once again proved that she could sing (she performed all of Anna’s songs in Frozen), and tell a joke. Though her shining moment might have been when she unveiled a full Alan Jackson impersonation, mustache and all, before Underwood presented longtime country star, Jackson, with CMT’s first ever Impact Award.
The music awards once again kicked off this week’s CMA Music Festival in Nashville. Pope and Lambert will both be performing during the four-day long event.
Photos courtesy of CMT
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