Nashville, TN (Top40 Charts/ Big Machine Records) With four awards,
Taylor Swift was the big winner of the night at last night's 47 th Annual CMA Awards ceremony. Taylor was honored with the CMA's Pinnacle Award, and also took home trophies for Video of the Year, Musical Event of the Year (both for "
Highway Don't Care" with
Tim McGraw and Keith Urban), and International Artist Achievement.
Taylor is just the second recipient in history of the CMA's Pinnacle Award, recognizing " an artist who has achieved both national and international prominence through concert performances and record sales at levels unique in Country Music. The artist has also attained the highest degree of recognition within the broad expanse of music worldwide. The artist's talent and presence will have a long-term positive impact on the appreciation of Country
Music for generations to come." In a special presentation, Taylor was honored on stage by superstars
George Strait ,
Tim McGraw ,
Faith Hill ,
Keith Urban ,
Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts, all of whom she opened shows for when she was a teenager. The award presentation also included video tributes from
Mick Jagger ,
Carly Simon ,
Justin Timberlake ,
Vince Gill , Ethel Kennedy , Julia Roberts , Reese Witherspoon , and
Ellen DeGeneres . See the presentation here: https://taylorswift.com/news/188413 .
Taylor performed a very unique version of her hit single "Red" on last night's telecast, an all-star performance featuring special guests
Alison Krauss , Edgar Meyer , Eric Darken, Sam Bush and
Vince Gill . Rolling Stone praised the performance for showcasing Taylor as "a very much respected country singer," and the Los Angeles Times wrote, "As big a star as you'll find….[Swift] reclaimed her roots …with the pretty, stripped-down performance." The live acoustic version of the song will be available on iTunes later this week.
Just last month, Taylor was honored as Songwriter/Artist of the Year for a record-breaking 6 th time by The Nashville Songwriters' Association International, and she is Billboard 's reigning Artist of the Year.
Taylor's album RED , released just over a year ago on Big Machine Records, has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide to date. Over that same year, Taylor played to 1.3 million fans in sold-out stadiums and arenas across the U.S. and Canada on her blockbuster The RED Tour, which heads to Australia and New Zealand this month. Taylor has added a Feb. 7, 2014 RED Tour date at Berlin's O2 World to her previously announced 2014 five-show UK leg of the tour at London's O2. Taylor plays the O2 in London on Feb. 1 , 2, 4, 10 & 11.
RED sold more than 1.2 million copies in the U.S. in its first week, scoring the highest first-week sales debut of any album in over a decade. Taylor is the only female artist in music history (and just the fourth artist ever) to twice have an album (2012's RED and 2010's Speak Now ) hit the 1 million first-week sales figure. With RED , Taylor became the first artist since the
Beatles (and the only female artist in history) to log six or more weeks at #1 with three consecutive studio albums.
Taylor recently filmed a role for the upcoming movie "The Giver," and has written the end credit song "
Sweeter Than Fiction" for the movie " One Chance ," a biopic of " Britain's Got Talent" winner
Paul Potts .
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