I think this is the beginning of a lovely bromance.
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“This is about being fearless and being bold”, Karen Fairchild said onstage with her group. It was a huge night for Chris Stapleton, who took home three awards and gave a special performance along with Justin Timberlake. “I gasped when I realized what this song was actually about”, Kimberly Schlapman said backstage. The country newcomer – who released his debut solo LP Traveller in May – received an overwhelming amount of support via social media, and massive applause after his downright incredible performance with Justin Timberlake.
Shelton won last year’s Male Vocalist of the Year award but did not win anything this year.
“It’s surreal, very unbelievable…I feel very loved”, Stapleton said backstage. It all feeds into the idea of what “real” country music should sound and look like – a topic which can (and will) be debated until the end of time.
That’s one takeaway from watching Chris Stapleton, a Grammy-nominated bluegrass musician mostly unknown outside of Nashville circles, win trophy after trophy at the Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday.
Even before this year, you were familiar with Stapleton’s talent.
The audience seems to have had a good time, too. They called it “crazy” before thanking their road family, band and crew on tour. Upon hitting the stage, the singer said she would keep her speech short, noting how much she appreciated the award.
Country star Miranda Lambert was among those taking to Twitter to praise Timberlake and Stapleton’s duet.
To open the 2015 CMA Awards, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley took a cue from the cult classic Star Wars.
Paisley and Underwood also joked about the show being “cray cray”, Ashley Madison, Justin Timberlake and finally did a cool segment with William Shatner dressed as a Storm Trooper.
Every video for Sia’s last album starred Maddie Ziegler, a little kid from Dance Moms, and all those videos turned out to be fantastic. They called out Luke Bryan, dubbing him “Luke Stagefaller” for his epic stage flops.
The pair also brought up the break-ups of various celebrity couples. Thought it would be Shelton and Lambert, didn’t you?
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Shelton’s representative announced Wednesday as well that he and fellow singer Gwen Stefani, both mentors on NBC’s “The Voice”, are dating.
