American Country Awards Bring Their Kinda Party to Las Vegas

The American Country Awards proved to be Jason Aldean’s “kinda party” as the singer was the big winner of the night with six awards, including Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Male Single of the Year, and Touring Artist of the Year. It also appeared to be the right kinda party for a crowd of good old country boys and gals, full of cowboy boots, WWE body slams, and red plastic cups, despite being hosted at the glitzy MGM Grand on the Las Vegas strip.

After the shameless commercialism of the recent American Music Awards, leave it to the country crowd to bring us down to earth and keep it real. No crazy pink wigs or freakish costumes, just lots of guys in hats and ladies dolled up in in pretty dresses. And the only dancers of the night were in the opening, when co-host Trace Adkins gave us the country version of badonkadonk, sans the Fiat and nude body stockings of that other crass award show.

But the most brilliant stroke of genius for the evening, hands down, was the pairing of the co-hosts — the giant with the booming bass drawl, and tiny country crooner Kristen Chenoweth with her self-described Betty Boop voice. After Adkins finished his opening number, down the aisles came Chenoweth, decked out in full boxer regalia to the tune of “Eye of the Tiger.” Even in her 4-inch heels, the 4′ 11″ Chenoweth fell far short of Adkins’ shoulders, dancing around him swinging punches. And so the (playful) verbal sparring began, with Adkins cautioning her to watch the blows below the belt, and his co-host squeaking back, “I have no choice.” Then she dropped her robe to sing her rendition of Adkins’ “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” with some male dancers…and a very suspiciously enhanced booty.

The duo kept the comedy coming all night between the musical numbers and awards, with Chenoweth sending WWE superstar Big Show to enforce the script changes she wanted, as he body slammed Adkins through a table, and the decidedly bizarre — and hilarious — entrance of the two with Adkins carrying Chenoweth in a baby harness strapped to his manly frame, and swinging her around at the end of their segment.

While that may sound like entertainment enough, the evening was filled with stellar performances from winners like Thompson Square, Blake Shelton and special award winners Alabama for the Greatest Hits category. And lest you think this wasn’t about the music, let me ask you this — how many award shows give out Fender guitars instead of trophies? That’s my kinda awards show. And I’ll bet most of the people getting the awards can actually play them.

Other big winners for the evening included Carrie Underwood and Thompson Square. Underwood scored guitars for Female Single of the Year and Video of the Year for “Mama’s Song”, as well as Female Artist of the Year. First time winners Thompson Square topped the Group Single of the Year and Single by a New Artists categories as well as Video by a New Artist for “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?” which they performed live.

The show also featured a top artist of the decade countdown, with Toby Keith taking the number one spot and wrapping up the evening to perform his latest single, “Red Solo Cup.” Not surprisingly, seems everyone in the audience already had one. While the 10 artists named for the decade had some big names like Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks, I couldn’t help but notice there was not one single woman in the list, which I find a bit disturbing. Have women really been that absent from country music in this century?

You might want to rethink that, boys, and make some room for the ladies. They may dress up purty, but those country gals are fierce.

List of Winners
Artist of the Year
Jason Aldean

Artist of the Year: Male
Brad Paisley

Artist of the Year: Female
Carrie Underwood

Artist of the Year: Group
Lady Antebellum

Artist of the Year: Breakthrough Artist
Chris Young

Artist of the Year: New Artist
Scotty McCreery

Album of the Year
Jason Aldean, “My Kinda Party”

Single of the year: Male
Chris Young, “Voices”

Single of the Year: Female
Carrie Underwood, “Mama’s Song”

Single of the Year: Duo or Group
Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?”

Single of the Year: New Artist
Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?”

Single of the Year: Vocal Collaboration
Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson, ‘Don’t You Wanna Stay?’

Music Video of the Year
Blake Shelton, “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking”

Music Video of the Year: Male
Blake Shelton, “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking”

Music Video of the Year: Female
Carrie Underwood, “Mama’s Song”

Music Video of the Year: Duo, Group or Collaboration
Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?”

Music Video of the Year: New Artist
Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?”

Touring Headline Package of the Year
Jason Aldean


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