2009 CMA Awards: Taylor Swift is Country Music's Entertainer of the Year

Taylor Swift is living proof that a year can make a big difference in someone's career. A year ago, the CMA Awards saw promise in a young 18-year-old Taylor Swift and she was nominated for a single award -- Female Vocalist of the Year. She lost to Carrie Underwood. She had released her second album, "Fearless," the day before. On the strength of that album, exactly one year later, the 2009 Country Music Association Awards saw Taylor Swift nominated for Female Vocalist of the year and three other awards -- Music Video of the Year, Album of the Year, and Entertainer of the Year.

And she swept them.

To win those 2009 CMA Awards, Taylor Swift had to get past some pretty stiff competition, both country veterans and strong newcomers. There was George Strait, the country crooner with 22 CMA Awards already on this mantle. There was Brad Paisley, the reigning Male Vocalist of the Year (one category he didn't have to worry about losing to Swift). There was Reba McEntire, the reigning queen of country music, nominated again for Female Vocalist of the Year. And, of course, there was Carrie Underwood, CMA Awards Female Vocalist of the Year for three years in a row. And for the big prize, she faced Kenny Chesney, Entertainer of the Year for four years in a row. She was up against the best of young country and old.

And she walked away the biggest winner of the night.

Taylor Swift had won the Music Video of the Year award before she even hit the stage, having won it in a previous ceremony the CMA Awards holds so they can fit all the major awards into a three-hour presentation and still cram in as much music as possible. While she picked up her other awards, she also performed twice.

When she accepted the award for Entertainer of the Year, Taylor Swift tearfully told the audience that winning the CMA Awards Entertainer of the Year award was what she had fulfilled a lifelong dream. She ended the night by telling the audience how much she appreciated the other artists in her category for Entertainer -- and how she had opened for all four of them. But Swift couldn't leave without a parting shot at Kanye West, interruptor extraordinaire at the Video Music Awards: "I want to thank each and every person in this room... for not coming up here and interrupting my speech."

Beautiful, funny, talented, accepted and acknowledged by her peers... At 19, a full year after releasing her sophomore album, Taylor Swift had arrived.

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Source:

"43rd Annual Country Music Awards," ABC Television