Tennessee - With a lucky 13 career wins, Carrie Underwood is now the most honoured artist in CMT Music Awards history. The country superstar added three more belt buckle trophies to her tally, taking home Collaborative Video of the Year with Miranda Lambert for ‘Somethin' Bad,’ along with Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year for the Raj Kapoor-directed ‘Something in the Water.’
‘This song is very special to me,’ she said upon accepting the Female Video honours, then thanking her three-month-old son. ‘This is my first awards show since little Isaiah has been in the world. I'm sure he's napping on the bus right now, but I should definitely say that he has already inspired me so much.’
Her first awards show and her first televised performance since welcoming her first child. Underwood belted the similarly spine-tingling ‘Little Toy Guns’ on the live broadcast, in one of surprisingly plenty of songs on the show that spotlighted lyrics and vocals over bells and whistles. For a programme that usually leans more MTV than CMA, this year's CMT Music Awards toned it down a notch; letting acts such as Underwood, Reba, Eric Church and Zac Brown Band showcase their tight bands and killer voices without pyrotechnics or leggy cheerleaders.
But what made the CMT Music Awards truly stand out from its country music awards show competitors this year and really, every preceding year in recent memory is inviting so many new kids to the cool kids' stage. Up-and-comers given a coveted performance slot on Wednesday's broadcast included Chris Janson, Kelsea Ballerini, A Thousand Horses, Maddie and Tae, RaeLynn and Frankie Ballard.
Sam Hunt was the new kid who took home Breakthrough Video of the Year, winning the first major, televised award of his skyrocketing career. Jason Aldean shares a win with Bob Seger for the CMT Performance of the Year. Florida Georgia Line's ‘Dirt’ is the CMT Duo Video of the Year. Luke Bryan is the Male Video winner for ‘Play It Again,’ and his labelmates Lady Antebellum had the audience laughing with their Group Video victory for ‘Bartender.’
‘You have to put Kate Upton in a video if you want to win,’ the trio's Charles Kelley sarcastically advised his competitors, referring to the supermodel who stars in their clip. ‘For the first time ever, Charles and Dave showed up early,’ Hillary Scott interjected of their ‘Bartender’ video shoot.
‘I wonder why?’ The 2015 CMT Music Awards were co-hosted by sportscaster Erin Andrews and actress Brittany Snow. Every category was fan-voted, with the night's biggest winner summing it up best: ‘Country music has the best fans in the world,’ gushed Underwood.