Classic CMA Awards Moments, #8: Faith Gets Carried Away (2006)

#8: Faith Hill & Carrie Underwood
Female Vocalist of the Year
2006

The CMAs experienced an unwanted (and many would argue, unwarranted) amount of attention in 2006, when an intended joke by Faith Hill cast a pall on the honoring of Carrie Underwood with the Female Vocalist of the Year trophy.

Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter Miley announced the five nominees for the award, and when Underwood was announced as the winner, the ABC cameras were aimed at all five nominees. Hill’s expression of supposed disbelief was displayed worldwide as she suddenly threw her arms wide open, mouthed what appeared to be a very angry “What?!” and stormed away.

In a statement released by Hill, she stated: “The idea that I would act disrespectful towards a fellow musician is unimaginable to me, for this to become a focus of attention given the talent gathered is utterly ridiculous. Carrie is a talented and deserving Female Vocalist of The Year.” Hill graciously called Underwood that evening, and the young singer later publicly stated that she understood how Hill’s joke was taken out of context.

While she had won three CMA awards (including 2000’s CMA Female Vocalist honor) previous to the ceremony, Hill has yet to receive another nomination. Underwood repeated as Female Vocalist of the Year in 2007, and also won Single of the Year for “Before He Cheats.”

Carrie Underwood, Female Vocalist of the Year (2006)

8 Comments

  1. I remember when this happened I thought, “did I just see what I thought I did” and rewound my tivo. I actually thought it was pretty funny (I didn’t take it seriously) and really felt bad for Faith b/c of the aftermath.

  2. I didn’t see it live when it happened, only clips of it on YouTube; but just from an analytical standpoint, I think it is difficult to have that kind of reaction that Faith did and not have even a small amount of the national television audience think that she looked like a sore loser, rather than what she intended, which I would gather constitutes Satire on Music Row.

    Anyway, Faith survived; and while I’m not exactly a fan of hers, I’d feel sorry for those who are if this incident got much worse than it actually did.

  3. Yea, I’m a huge Carrie fan and what sucks is that whenever people think of Carrie’s first CMA Female Vocalist win, this is what they’ll think about. I know Faith didn’t mean anything by it, but she just totally stole Carrie’s thunder!

  4. Sarcasm all Faith meant by this as it was pretty obvious that Ms. Underwood was well on her way to winning this award that year. This incident got way out of hand.

  5. I never once thought it was for real. Even while watching it live on T.V. you could see Faith fooling around with the camera, I think she must have felt awkward having on her for so long as it probably is for any nominee. But it always looked like a joke to me. But in the media they only showed the exact moment of the “what” and nothing leading up to it. I think that’s where most of the misconception came from.

  6. I remember seeing it live and telling my mom, “Did you see Faith? She made a face!” My mom didn’t believe me until she heard it on the radio the next day.

    I actually thought Faith was serious for a while, but I realized it made no sense for her to respond like that seriously.

  7. I’ll just go on record as saying that I never for a second believed that Faith Hill was serious.

    But, if I were Faith Hill, I’d rue the day YouTube was invented. :P

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