A trio of country music’s biggest stars–Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith–were revealed as early winners in two of the 12 CMA Awards categories that were announced live from Nashville on “Good Morning America” today, Nov. 1.
The announcement of these hometown winners was greeted with approving cheers by those gathered at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena Plaza, all of whom who waiting to watch Reba McEntire perform live for the ABC morning show.
Football-lovin’ Chesney and veteran-supporting McGraw, who performed together on the summer’s biggest-grossing tour, were named as the recipients of this year’s CMA Musical Event of the Year in honor of their “Feel Like A Rock Star” duet. And Oklahoma son Keith and director Michael Salomon were announced as winners of the 2012 CMA Music Video of the Year prize for “Red Solo Cup.”
Usually, the winners of these two award categories are reserved for announcement during the pre-televised portion of the annual awards show, and then acknowledged during the live-show broadcast. But this year, ABC-TV and the CMA took a different approach.
“What a great way to lead up to ‘Country Music’s Biggest Night’ by announcing our winners on ‘Good Morning America’ and sharing the news with the ‘GMA’ viewers and the fans here in Nashville,” said Steve Moore, CEO for the CMA.
The aforementioned win marks the second time McGraw has won a CMA Award for a collaboration with Chesney. The two received CMA Vocal Event of the Year Awards for their work on Tracy Lawrence’s “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” in 2007.
In this year’s 46th CMA event, Chesney was nominated for three CMA Awards, including Entertainer of the Year; Musical Event of the Year for “Feel Like A Rock Star” with McGraw; and Music Video of the Year for “Come Over,” directed by Shaun Silva. If Chesney wins Entertainer of the Year, he’ll take the record for the most wins in the category. He’s currently tied with Garth Brooks, winning the trophy four times in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
According to the CMA’s PR camp, Keith has received 28 CMA Award nominations in his career, and this marks his third CMA Award win. He was named Male Vocalist of the Year in 2005 and also won Music Video of the Year with Salomon in 2005 for “As Good As I Once Was.” Salomon won Music Video of the Year in 1995 for “Baby Likes To Rock It” with The Tractors.
For an updated list of 2012 CMA prize winners, please click here. To get the scoop on Willie Nelson’s Lifetime Achievement Award prize from the CMA, a first-ever event, please click here.
About the CMA Awards
The CMA Awards nominees and winners are determined by the 11,000 industry professional members of CMA, which was formed in 1958 as the first trade organization to promote an individual genre of music. The first “CMA Awards Banquet and Show” was held in 1967.
The following year, the CMA Awards was broadcast on NBC television for the first time – making it the longest-running annual music awards program on network television. The awards aired on NBC through 1971 and on the CBS Television Network from 1972 through 2005 before moving to ABC in 2006. ABC will be the network home of the CMA Awards through 2021.
