CMA Awards 2009: Entertainer of the Year Nominee List and Predictions

The 2009 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards show is set to air this evening on ABC at 8/7 Central. Superstars Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will emcee the big event, no doubt providing numerous nuggets of good humor throughout. The 2009 CMA nominee list for Entertainer of the Year is stuffed with talent from Swift and Paisley to longtime mega-successful crooner George Strait. So who's been nominated for the Entertainer of the Year CMA award and who will take it home tonight? Here's the full listing and some educated predictions.

The 2009 CMA Award nominees for the prestigious and highly coveted Entertainer of the Year award, which denotes the best of the best in country music, are Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban.

George Strait is a perennial nominee for the CMA for Entertainer of the Year, although he hasn't taken home the award in nearly two decades. He is currently riding the wave of being named Artist of the Decade at this year's Academy of Country Music Awards, so he'll definitely be in contention for the CMA, if only for sentimental reasons.
Keith Urban swept the Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year CMA Awards in 2005 and won the latter again in 2006. He's enjoyed his most recent success with Start a Band, a 2009 collaborative effort with Brad Paisley. Other than that and his good looks, Urban seems an unlikely winner of the 2009 Entertainer of the Year CMA award. The accomplishments just aren't there.

Brad Paisley has been a CMA winners' list fixture since he won the Horizon Award back in 2000. The reigining Male Vocalist of the Year has released an album a year for the last five years, demonstrating a staying-power that most musicians can't match. Paisley isn't at the tippy top of my list, but he has a good shot at winning the 2009 CMA for Entertainer of the Year.

Kenny Chesney is the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year, and in fact, he took home the award in 2007, too. Chesney has under his belt one of the most successful country music tours in history as well as an ability to relate to fans that makes him nearly second to none. Likely winner? Yes, if the Association is looking at recent success extending beyond the current year.

Finally, the last CMA nominee for Entertainer of the Year: Taylor Swift. In the land of 'one of these things is not like the others', Swift is a stand-out. Her career started with the release of Tim McGraw back in 2006, and she hasn't slowed down since. At just 19 years old, she's sold millions of albums. Tickets for her upcoming concert tour sold out within minutes in my area, and it seems like everyone loves her. Her gender may be against her; after all the last women to win the CMA for Entertainer of the Year were the Dixie Chicks back in 2000.

But Swift may well be the woman to break the male-dominated streak, especially given the criteria for the award. According to an article posted to the Tennessean Blog, the Entertainer of the Year CMA "emphasizes the nominees' live show performances along with record sales, staging, public acceptance, leadership and their overall contribution to the genre's image." If Swift isn't rewarded for dominating the country music world this year, according to these guidelines, something is rotten in Nashville.

Tune in to the 2009 CMA awards show this evening to see who takes home the Entertainer of the Year award. My money's on Taylor Swift, but the world waits to see.

Sources:

Cindy Watts, CMT Entertainer Prize Will be One for the Books, The Tennessean

CMAs Previous Winners, Country Music About.com

Calvin Gilbert, Brad Paisley Leads List of CMA Nominees, CMT

Personal Experience/Knowledge