I was expecting some dramatic turn away…
Here at the Swift Agency, just a guy who’s really glad that the Taylor Nation in London gets the Sparkly Dressed for a while, we’re hoping everyone gets a chance to attend her concerts. The Blonde With The Sparkly Guitar is up for five nominations for the 49th Annual ACM Awards on April 6:
- Entertainer of the Year
- Female Vocalist of the Year
- Single Record of the Year for “Highway Don’t Care”– Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban
- Video of the Year* for “Highway Don’t Care”– Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban
- Vocal Event of the Year* for “Highway Don’t Care”– Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban.
(*) These are already announced as off-camera awards.
This time you don’t only get the nominations but my opinion on each one. Here we go!
Entertainer of the Year. This one is the only fan voted award… except that after the Luke Bryan fiasco from last year, we’re not too sure. Remember? After Luke Bryan had been declared the winner, someone found the webpage had Taylor Swift’s name highlighted as the winner a few days later. The Academy had to make a statement reinforcing that Luke Bryan was indeed the winner.
So here’s the 2014 version of the voting rules for Entertainer of the Year:
The final nominees are voted on by the ACM professional membership with the winner being determined by a combination of votes from the professional membership of the ACM and fan voting (online and/or text).
– ACM’s 2014 Awards Voting Criteria.
Now it’s official. Fan voting will be affected by the voting from members of the ACM. Of course, nothing is said about the combination. If a vote of a professional member were to be valued for a hundred or a thousand of votes from regular fan voters, they could easily tilt the win to a different winner.
Fan voting begins at VoteACM.com on March 24. With Miranda Lambert added as a new player in the list that already includes Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, votes might be divided. That could be a good thing if the Taylor Nation can vote in large numbers. IN the end, it might be the professional vote deciding the winner.
Female Vocalist of the Year. Taylor is actually a great vocalist and her voice has gotten stronger, but she’s been marked a bit unfairly by one too many critics as lacking here and they’ve never revised that opinion. Odds are against the ACM voters giving her this one. The favorite here has been Miranda Lambert as Female Vocalist just so we can get Blake Shelton as Male Vocalist, which has been the pattern for the last years. This year Kacey Musgraves enters the fray. Personally, I’d love for Taylor to win this one because it’s the most unlikely award for her to win.
The next three awards have a lot of repeated nominees so chances are no single/video/event will take all three awards, but rather each of them will have a different winner. I’m relying on the “spread the love around” award rule.
Single Record of the Year for “Highway Don’t Care” – Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban. The favorite is still Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” for this one although Lee Brice’s “I Drive Your Truck” and Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart” might be remembered more fondly by ACM professional voters.
Video of the Year for “Highway Don’t Care” – Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban. Better odds than for Single, but almost every nominee is in the same boat. Here you find Carrie Underwood’s “Two Black Cadillacs”, The Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two” and Kacey Musgraves’ “Blowin’ Smoke”. The result is that odds are almost evenly distributed for everyone, although I’d say Kacey Musgraves might edge out of the pack if the ACM feel like recognizing her Grammy wins.
Vocal Event of the Year for “Highway Don’t Care” – Tim McGraw Featuring Taylor Swift & Keith Urban. It’s going again Florida Georgia Line’s performance of “Cruise” featuring Nelly and Blake Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here” but for vocals it might just win it. However, this category also has Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel” remake with Lady Antebellum.
How does Taylor Swift fare here overall? To be really honest… not too well. Statistically speaking, she usually has better luck with the CMAs. On the other hand, she did surprise people back in 2012, when she did won Entertainer for the second year in a row. But now that the streak is broken, it could be anybody’s game. We will end up tuning in for sure, but we’re not getting our hopes up too much.
Remember that even when Taylor doesn’t win she’s still getting the spotlight.
Up next, the RED Tour returns! The first concert is this Saturday, February 1st.
Coming up on the Calendar!
- February 1: The RED Tour in London, UK at the O2. Check here, here or here for ticket information.
- February 2: The RED Tour in London, UK at the O2. Check here, here or here for ticket information.
- February 4: The RED Tour in London, UK at the O2. Check here, here or here for ticket information.
- February 7: The RED Tour in Berlin, Germany at O2 World. Check here for ticket information.
- February 10: The RED Tour in London, UK at the O2. Check here, here or here for ticket information.
- February 11: The RED Tour in London, UK at the O2. Check here, here or here for ticket information.
(Sources: 49th Annual ACM Awards)
The Swift Agency 
I would like to think that after last year’s debacle they will more reasonably honour the fan-voting.
I’m well aware it doesn’t actually mean anything, they use fan-voting as mixed a form of publicity and revenue collection but if they were caught out again I think the backlash would be quite severe, possibly including some words from others within the industry.
Last year ACMs used CBS’s system which does not count votes under 18 years of age or any International votes. Clearing stacking deck against Taylor. Said Taylor was winning at start of show but that Luke pulled ahead. Taylor was trending #7 worldwide and Luke was not in the top 500. Award shows are not designed for fairness in voting, but are designed to get artists there for free. No one gets paid. But check the rules with voting. They want young people to be involved and foreign involvement and then don’t count the votes.
Right now, VoteACM.com points to GAC’s New Artist voting page where it is stated, “You must be 13 years of age or older to vote and register. Voting is open to visitors from the United States, Canada and Australia only.” Whether that will hold true for the Entertainer of the Year, we’ll have to wait and see. I’m watching to see what the voting rules say this year.
I like that positive thinking! Yes, I think it wouldn’t be nice if they were caught on the same thing. I still want to put them under the microscope this year.
Gac execs don’t like Taylor. They rarely play her videos on GAC, and when they do it’s real late at night or early morning. They would rather someone who sings more traditional country wins the awards they sponsor.