Classic CMA Awards Moments, #7: Shania Twain, Entertainer of the Year (1999)

#7: Shania Twain
Entertainer of the Year
1999

She’d long been an afterthought with the Country Music Association, failing to secure an award in her six-year career, but the organization righted past wrongs by honoring Shania Twain with its most significant trophy in 1999.

Twain had taken losses twice for the Horizon Award, and had been defeated in both her Female Vocalist of the Year nominations, including earlier in the evening. But Reba McEntire beamed with joy as she read Twain’s name to make her only the fifth female artist in history to take the CMA’s top award.

Twain acknowledged the Hall of Fame inductions of Conway Twitty and Dolly Parton that same evening, and gave credit to McEntire for her influence on Twain’s entertaining. She also spoke humbly of the commitment of her road band and crew, and earned an enthusiastic response from Vince Gill, who noted after the speech that the critics would be silenced after the win.

Although she has presented and performed multiple times at the CMAs in the last decade, Twain has yet to take another trip to the podium and has only received one other nomination, 2005‘s Vocal Event of the Year for her duet with Billy Currington, “Party for Two.”

Shania Twain, Entertainer of the Year (1999)

7 Comments

  1. this has got to be my favorite because i love reba’s expression when she saw Twain’s name on the wiiner ballot :D
    And of course I am glad that she got some of her dues from the CMAs :)

  2. She so deserved it no matter if she hadn’t been recognized in the past or even earlier in the evening, she went home with the big one. Her stats are undeniable, and most of them are probably untouchable.

  3. Ok random question, I thought the year she won she wore that pink outfit with the cowboy hat?? Or was that the following year when she presented?? Or was that a totally different awards show??

  4. Shania is so gracious when she accepts awards, it’s a shame they haven’t given her more of them! I remember when she won ACM Top New Female Vocalist over Terri Clark, and acknowledged Clark, saying she was going to be huge because she’s such a tremendous talent.

  5. Even though I’m not exactly a fan of hers, I do have to admire Shania for her graciousness, which I think is an increasingly rare trait in the business.

    As to why Shania hasn’t gotten more awards than she deserves, I think it may have to do with a certain kind of jealousy that affects both the critics and fans of other artists: the idea that nobody whose album sales can be measured in the tens of millions can possibly be that good. It’s an art-versus-commerce thing; you may agree or disagree with it, but it does exist.

  6. Shania has been snubbed for over a decade by the CMA but has showed class the whole time.
    The sole reason for being snubbed is not just her unmatched sales and success for woman in country music but she wrote all her own songs and had her own producer.Nobody was making money off of her except Shania and Mutt who took all the money themselves.
    Its all politics and whose back you pat. Shania never kissed butt and made hundreds of millions of dollars and just smiled and made her own music.Nashville will never forgive her and Shania doesn’t care. Shania is a class act all the way who never said a bad word about anyone or the industry.

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