Entertainer Of The Year From trad to rad, these performers pull out all the stops By tom roland
Jason Aldean
Luke Bryan
Blake Shelton
This marks the third straight year Jason Aldean has contended for entertainer of the year, an award that’s generally, though not entirely, thought of as a gauge of personal appearances. A road warrior since the beginning, Aldean reached another level in 2013 by filling three stadiums. He drew a reported 66,000 for the first-ever concert at the University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium in Athens, became the first country artist to headline Boston’s Fenway Park and also played a show at Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field. Aldean brings a lot of attitude—he’s essentially a country singer fronting a rock band—and it says a lot about his public stature and drawing power that one of his rivals in this category, Luke Bryan, was a supporting act on his last tour.
There’s no pretense with Luke Bryan, and that’s a big part of his charm. His songs are a celebration of Southern guys and girls connecting, and his annual spring break concerts— performed since 2009 at Spinnaker Beach Club in Panama City, Fla.—bring that celebration to life. (He sometimes seems to see his onstage role as the orchestrator of one big spring break blowout, with chatter about audience members hooking up.) A compilation of the resulting EPs, Spring Break . . . Here to Party, earned him his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in March. The single “Crash My Party,” released in April, went to No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and provided the title for his most recent studio set, released in August, which sold 528,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
When Blake Shelton claimed the CMA’s top prize a year ago, it was a confirmation that his performance on NBC’s “The Voice” has opened a lot of doors for country music. In a digital-era entertainment landscape, where audience attention spans are short, he’s managed to convey his personality perfectly, balancing wit and sarcasm on the air and on Twitter, where he lets it all hang out in front of 3.9 million followers. Shelton’s comic edge works even better because he’s able to put it aside at the right moments and profess his passions— and his self-doubts. It’s that kind of vulnerability that helps him sell a ballad, and he’s managed to show off all those facets in a personable way, even in the expanses of the arenas he’s now headlining.
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C M A Awa r d s 2013
voter guide
George Strait This entertainer of the year nomination gives George Strait 82 CMA nods so far in his career, breaking a tie with fellow traditionalist Alan Jackson for the all-time lead. He’s won a record 22 CMA trophies, including those for entertainer and producer of the year. This year’s nomination is his 18th in the category, coming as he prepares to close his formal touring life in 2014 with dates in 26 markets, capped by an appearance at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas—apropos because it’s in his home state, but also because he inaugurated country’s current love affair with stadium dates 15 years ago. Like his character in the 1992 movie “Pure Country,” Strait has routinely brushed aside big-production elements when on the road—a video screen, his classic smile and song-centric performance seem to do the trick.
Taylor Swift Taylor Swift won the CMA’s entertainer of the year trophy in 2009, the year she launched her Fearless tour, and again in 2011, in the midst of her global Speak Now jaunt. Now, with the ambitious Red tour in progress—with its whirl of costume changes, dancers, pyrotechnics and satellite stages—it could be her year yet again. As much as Swift is hailed as an ambassador for country music outside of its stylistic borders, her vision outside of U.S. borders is particularly impressive. Country has traditionally focused on America, but the entire world has been Swift’s market. She started touring overseas territories early on in her career and has taken her seamless blend of country and pop to Europe, Australia, South America, Japan and even Indonesia.