Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Taylor Swift's 22nd Birthday!!!

It's December 13 and guess what that means?!?! It's Taylor Swift's birthday!! She's turning 22 today and in honor of her and her many, many achievements, I'm dedicating this post to her. It's no wonder her lucky number is 13 considering her birthday is on the 13th. Most people would take that as a bad luck sign, but not her, she seems to be getting all the luck these days with her amazing album, Speak Now, which has been out for over a year now, her unbelievable Speak Now World Tour, becoming a CoverGirl, and her amazing achievements and awards she's received recently.


by me
Taylor Swift's amazing career all started when she was just 16 and released her first album Taylor Swift which is over 5 times platinum in the U.S.. Her career than really started going strong when she released her second album Fearless which is over 6 times platinum in the U.S. She than won four Grammys in 2009 including the biggest Grammy of then night, Album of the Year. By the time she was getting ready to release her third album, Speak Now, I had a countdown until October 25, 2010 when it was being released. I actually stayed up until midnight waiting to download it on iTunes. Speak Now sold over 1 million albums in the first week which is more than any other album has sold during it's first week since 2005 and is now listed in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records for Speak Now being the fastest selling digital album by a female artist! She is named "Entertainer of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly, "Women of the Year" by Billboard magazine, Academy of Country Music award's Entertainer of the Year, American Music Award's Artist of the Year, Country Music Association award's Entertainer of the Year, Teen Choice Award's Ultimate Choice. That's just a few of the top honors Taylor has gotten or won in 2011, not including any achievements or awards from previous years for Fearless, Taylor Swift, or herself in general. Click here for a full list of achievements and awards Taylor has been nominated for or won throughout her career.
by me
So as you can see, Taylor has accomplished so much in her lifetime already and all before the age of 22. I think that's amazing! She's such a role model for me and she truly is my idol. She makes it so easy to relate to her through not only her songs, but her personality. I think she's such a sweet, funny person who truly loves her family, friends, and fans. She makes such a point to pay attention and thank her fans whenever she can. While some other artist might get annoyed with obsessive fans and try to disguise themselves when they go out somewhere, Taylor makes a point to walk up to those fans and give them a hug. Taylor makes video blogs for her fans to watch. Here's one of the many video blogs she's made.

Asia! (my February video blog)

You can find more of her video blogs here, on her official website. In both the Fearless and Speak Now World Tours, Taylor made sure she got to thanks fans for coming and supporting her by going out into the audiences and walk through the aisle hugging people, kissing them on the check, and saying "Hey! Thanks so much for coming!". I know she genuinely is thankful and appreciative of her fan's dedication to her. She even started a challenge between two adoring fans, Micheal Wekall and Ryan Leander, who started a website called "A Hug From Taylor Swift" with the goal of getting a hug from Taylor. Taylor saw their videos and responded to it with a video of her own, giving the guys a challenge to complete, walk an old lady across the street (find it here). Micheal and Ryan responded to the challenge, completing it (find it here), and then was given a second challenge (find it here), find the most create ways to use the number 13. They completed this challenge (find it here) and then Taylor finally gave them their third, and final challenge (find it here), get a group of people together to have the biggest karaoke of the song "You Belong with Me". Taylor then showed up there, at Micheal and Ryan's college, Auburn University, to give Micheal and Ryan a hug and give a little performance to the people who showed up for karaoke (find it here). This is just one example of Taylor's thoughtfulness to her fans. 

So to wrap this post up, I'd like to say Happy Birthday Taylor! Congratulations on all your success so far and I hope/know there will be so much more success to come.
(Any facts in this post can be backed up here)


Sunday, December 4, 2011

2011 American Country Awards


On Monday, December 5, 2011 there will be the second annual American Country Awards at 8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT taped-delayed on FOX. This award show will be hosted by Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth.

The awards are fan voted online before hand. The voting for all the awards except Artist of the Year closed on November 11. People were able to vote for Artist of the Year until December 2, only three days before the show. I love fan voted award shows because you get to see how your voting has effected the winners. For me, I get more nervous and excited when they are announcing the winners at a fan voted show because I had control over who I voted for, so I get more into the award show. I have been voting and I'm excited to see who wins what awards. The nominees for the big award of the night, Artist of the Year, are Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift, and Zac Brown Band.

This award show has many different award categories that award artists for their talent and hard work. Other awards that will be given out throughout the night are Artist of the Year: male, Artist of the Year: female, Artist of the Year: New Artist, Album of the Year, Music Video of the Year, Touring Headline Act of the Year, and many more. Here is a full list of the nominees for each award. Some artist that will be performing throughout the night are Blake Shelton, Pistol Annies, Thompson Square, Eli Young Band, the Band Perry, and more. Click here for more information about the 2011 ACAs. I love country music and I can't wait to see this. My favorite country artist is Taylor Swift, so I do hope for a big win for her, but I do love other country artist as well. I'm a fan of Scotty McCreery, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean, and many others as well, so I do hope they do well too. Overall, I think this will be a can't miss night for country music.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

2011 AMA results

Taylor Swift was the big winner of the night, taking home the award for Artist of the Year. I think this is a huge accomplishment for Taylor because she's a country singer and won against Adele, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, and Katy Perry. Taylor Swift also took home two other awards, one for Favorite Country Female Artist and one for Favorite Country Album. I think Taylor Swift deserves every award she won that night, because I think her songwriting, performance skills, and singing are just beyond what every other artist has done this year.


Taylor Swift was one of the two artists to take home the most awards. Adele also took home three awards that night including, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Album, and Favorite Female Artist. Here is a full list of the winners that night. Katy Perry was honored with a surprise award achievement award for being the first female pop singer to have five number one singles off one album. I think Katy Perry has been so successful in her career that this award is just the start of great success to come.


There were many performances throughout the night but I think that the best was the finale by LMFAO. They really pumped up the party and just gave a fun filled performance. Justin Bieber, David Hasselhoff, and Keenan Cahill made appearances in LMFAO's performance which really got the crowd excited.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

39th Annual AMAs


The 2011 American Music Awards will be live tonight, Sunday, November 20 on ABC at 8/7 central. This award show will again be a host-free night that awards musicians in many different categories. I think not having a specific host is a great way to have a more laid back, casual night.  Like previous years, all the awards are fan voted. Christina Aguilera, Justin Bieber, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Pitbull, Maroon 5, Drake, and Ludacris will be performing throughout the night. Click here to see a video preview for the performers. The nominees up for the biggest award of the night, Artist of the Year, are Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, Adele, and Katy Perry .



Adele is also nominated for three other awards which makes her the artist nominated for the most awards for this evening. Click here for a full list of the nominees for each award. I think this night will be amazing, jam packed with celebrities and performances. I'm most excited to see all the live performances. It'll be interesting to see what songs each artist chooses to perform and how they'll perform it. I'm also excited to see what every decides to wear. I'm always amused by Lady Gaga's outfits. I voted and will be tuned in to watch this show and hopefully you will too!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

CMA Results

The CMA 45th annual awards show was this past Wednesday, November 9th. The big winner was Taylor Swift who took home the biggest award of the night, Entertainer of the Year.

This is the second time Taylor Swift has won this award, the first time she won this award was in 2009. Taylor performed "Ours" which has just recently become available on iTunes on November 8th. The Band Perry won big too and took home the most awards. They won for New Artist of the Year and their hit song "If I Die Young" won for Single of the Year and Song of the Year. Click here to see the other winners of the night.

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood were co-hosts again, and I think they worked perfectly together. They also performed the hit duet "Remind Me" for the first time live on national t.v., and it was one of my favorite performances of the night.


Another great performance was the tribute to Glen Campbell, who has won Entertainer of the Year in the past, is a Country Music Hall of Fame member, and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Brad Paisley, Vince Gill, and Keith Urban performed this tribute with three of his songs. Glen Campbell and composer Jimmy Webb went on stage and got a standing ovation afterwards.


Any facts written in this blog post can be backed up here.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

CMA 45th Awards

The 45th annual CMA awards will be live on this Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 at 8/7 central on ABC. This award show will be packed with performances and awards. There will be performances by Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Sugerland, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean, and Scotty McCreery. In addition Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will perform their hit, Remind Me, together and Faith Hill will perform at the CMAs for the first time in five years. Faith Hill will debut her new song 'Come Home' at the CMAs which is huge because she hasn't released any of her own music since 2007. Blake Shelton, Kenny Loggins, Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, Lionel Richie, Vince Gill, and Keith Urban will also make appearances on stage. The nominees up for the biggest award of the night, the Entertainer of the Year, are Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban.
They are all great singers and have all been nominated for other awards as well. All the nominees for Entertainer of the Year are performing at the award show as well. Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, and Brad Paisley have all won Entertainer of the Year in previous years. This is the first time Blake Shelton and Jason Aldean have been nominated for this award. The hosts for this night will be Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley for the third year in a row.
They work perfectly together, so this should be a great night!


Get more information by going behind the scenes of the CMA Awards Promo.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Blogging About...

My blog will be about music, but I would like to go further into music and blog about music artists. One of my favorite music artists is Taylor Swift, but I would like to learn and share information about her and other music artists. I'll blog about their music, what their songs are about, and how their songs are doing. I'll also blog about their lives,  from topics like if they're touring to if they're involved in helping charities.