Tonight, I went where few have gone before…well….actually, I have no idea how many have gone there, but it’s a first for me. GAC held a taping in Studio B at the Grand Ole Opry House for the ACM New Artist Awards. We saw Zac Brown Band, Julianne Hough, and Jake Owen belt out three of their biggest hits, and recieve their very FIRST awards. It was a night to remember.
I’ve never seen Jake Owen perform live before, and after tonight, I can say that it wasn’t my last. Jake has AMAZING vocal ability. He flashed those sulky bedroom eyes at nearly everyone in the room and performed ” Yee Haw”, “Startin WithMe”, and “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You.” Everyone can see that Jake is easy on the eyes, but the power in his voice blew me away. He got the crowd pumped. When asked who the first person he called after he found out he had won the Top New Male Vocalist ACM, Jake answered with a boyish grin and said his mom. He said she cried when she dropped him off in Nashville to give music a shot, and she cried when he told her he won.
Julianne Hough is just about the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. She is very comfortable in front of the crowd, but she stuggled with losing her voice. She said she was “sick as a dog,” but didn’t show it at all after chugging a bottle of water. She sang “That Song in My Head”, “Hide Your Matches”, and “Hallelujah Song.” She fought back tears when accepting her Best New Female Vocalist ACM award and gave a playful wave to Chuck Wicks, who was standing off to the side. Julianne also told us where she was when she heard she won. In her Nashville apartment, Julianne jumped around screaming with her sister after receiving the call.
Zac Brown Band was really AMAZING! I am always surprised to see people who perform with such gumption live, but get all shy and bashful when speaking in front of people. When Zac accepted the award, his eyes got misty. He was so grateful, and gave a shout-out to his band, crew, and wife. The Zac Brown Band performed “Whatever It Is”, “Toes”, and “Chicken Fried”. They displayed some amazing guitar pickin and great musicianship. It was very obvious why they took home the Best New Vocal Group ACM. Zac said it took “13 years and overnight” to get to where they were.
It was an amazing night filled with laughs and great music. You can catch the GAC ACM New Artist Special next Thursday, March 19th at 10pm Eastern on GAC. The ACM’s will air April 5th on CBS.
Got some country music gossip and don’t wanna be a tattle tale? Email me, Tawny Tucker, Tawny@countrymusictattletale.com
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Julianne is the cutest thing but does that make her the best new female artist in country music. Silly me. I thought that you had to have some talent and actually be serious about your singing in order to win this award. I feel bad for all of the talented people who deserved this award but lost out to Julianne’s DWTS fanatics who voted like crazy. I would expect that Julianne will also win the real thing and it will mean nothing other than she is more popular. Julianne is a joke and now she is taking country music down with her.
Allison-I beg to differ…it was best NEW female artist and the girl can actually sing. She’s got a great voice and she was a real trooper last night singing even though she was battling an illness and was obviously struggling to keep her voice. She absolutely should have won against Sarah Buxton and Ashton Sheperd. Out of the three nominated, Julianne does have the best pipes.
I also have to disagree with you Allison. I saw her last week performing and her on stage performing was really quite good and her repoire with the audience is really up there with the best of them. Keep in mind this is for NEW artist, so its not like she is competing with Carrie or Martina, etc.
She had a number one album and two charted singles on her debut CD, which is very good. It does not matter where your fans come from, it just matters that they buy your Cd and if you get radio airplay and she accomplished both of them.
If she wasn’t any good then she wouldn’t have been invited to open for Brad and then this year George Strait. Either of those artists can choose ANYONE and they chose her. That says a lot in my opinion.
George Strait has said that he and his wife Norma are Dancing With The Stars fans. They had been fans of Julianne’s since her first season on that show. I believe that was the case for Brad as well. I think the major reason she has been so readily accepted by many in the genre is because she already came in well known from the show and many already were fans of Julianne the dancer. Not necessarily because people are that in love with her as a country artist. Without DWTS, she would be up and coming and having to pay her dues on a lesser scale like other artists in the industry. She wouldn’t have had the quick path she’s had to due her built in fanbase and recognition from those in the industry already famillar with her.
I can tell you April, that you can know and be fan of a person for one aspect of their career….but George and Brad wouldn’t ask her to tour with them if she didn’t have actual singing talent. Yes, I’m sure that it would’ve taken longer for her to rise to ACM level if she hadn’t been on DWTS, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that she CAN actually sing.
Oh, I agree that Julianne has singing talent. But so do a lot of others who aren’t where she is now because they haven’t had the vehicle to promote themselves the way she has. Let’s be honest, this isn’t strickly about talent. My point is, at this stage in her career, if she was just Julianne Hough who had come to Nashville and hadn’t been seen by George, Brad, and others in the industry on DWTS and they weren’t already fans of hers from her dancing on the show would she already be opening for them at this juncture in her career? Would she have won this award without a built in fanbase that knows how to manipulate votes? In my opinion, probably not. This award isn’t about who is really the best new female vocalist. It’s a popularity contest. That’s what happens when this sort of thing is open to fan voting. Other artists have commented on this as being the case as well…
How do u think CUnderwood n KPickler got their fanbase…it started w/American Idol, same thing. Did they pay their dues as u stated? Come on girl.
[...] Tawny was lucky enough to go to the taping of the show. Check out her review here. [...]
She also won “Top New Artist.” That should have never happened against Jake Owen.