Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean were the big winners at the 47th annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday night in a show that provided few surprises. Ms. Swift, who at 22 has become one of the highest-earning singers in any genre, was named entertainer of the year for the second year in a row, beating out Mr. Aldean, Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley. The award was not unexpected. Her last album, “Speak Now,” was the second-best-selling LP of 2011, and Billboard recently named her its top moneymaker last year with an estimated $35 million earned. She also won two Grammys earlier this year.
Ms. Lambert won her third consecutive female vocalist of the year award and her third album of the year trophy for her “Four the Record.”
“Seriously?” Ms. Lambert shouted as she picked up the album award during a televised ceremony at a Las Vegas casino. “I own every record in this category and I’ve been listening and listening, thinking I’m not going to get it.”
Mr. Aldean won two trophies – for single record and vocal event of the year — for the single “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” a steamy duet with Kelly Clarkson.
Scotty McCreery, last year’s “American Idol” winner, whose debut country album has gone platinum, took the new artist of the year award.
The show featured several incongruous moments apparently meant to signal country’s relevance to other genres and to Hollywood. The rock band Kiss, appearing in full makeup, presented the award for best vocal group (it went to Lady Antebellum.) Bono from U2 appeared on a video to introduce the singer Dierks Bentley. Ashton Kutcher, the actor, donned a cowboy hat and sang a song before giving Ms. Lambert the female vocalist of the year award. And Steve Martin, the actor, writer and bluegrass banjo picker, appeared with Rascal Flatts to perform their new single, “Banjo,” which the producers tried to use in place of a proper memorial to Earl Scruggs, the banjo master who died last week.
Though all of country’s top stars did a turn on stage, the funniest and most spontaneous musical moment came from Toby Keith, who wandered the crowd to sing his “Red Solo Cup,” an ode to the favorite cup at keg parties across the country.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 2, 2012
An earlier version of this post misspelled Scotty McCreery's surname.
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