An AWOL Twain took the top "Hat" at the Academy of Country Music Awards Wednesday night, winning the coveted Entertainer of the Year prize even as old-school Nashville music makers protested the kind of Country Lite pop music that made her the nation's top-selling female artist.
Bringing the controversy to centerstage, George Strait and Alan Jackson led off the ceremony with "Murder on Music Row," a stinging ditty accusing label and radio execs of ignoring the grittier traditional country music for the slicker, Muzak-ready pop dominating the airwaves. Not surprisingly, the song has been boycotted by several country stations.
Aside from Twain, other big winners included Lonestar (Top Song and Single for "Amazed"), Faith Hill (Female Vocalist and Video for "Breathe") and the Dixie Chicks (Duo/Group and Album for Fly). It was the second consecutive Best Album award for the Texas trio.
Meanwhile, Strait and Jackson weren't the only ones taking pot shots at the Shania brand of music. Hill (who has also benefited from the move to pop-oriented country) raised eyebrows when she implied to reporters that hubby Tim McGraw should have won Entertainer of the Year. She later clarified her comment saying that Twain deserved it, but joked that it was "time for my husband to win that award."
Nonetheless, McGraw, who won for Male Vocalist, praised Nashville's reigning music queen. "What hasn't [Shania] done for females in country music?" he said after the show. "She deserves everything she gets, absolutely."
Twain's current album, Come on Over, has sold almost 13 million copies in the United States after 130 weeks of release, making it the bestselling album of all time by a female artist.
The 3,000-member Academy also awarded Clint Black and actress wife Lisa Hartman-Black a Vocal Event of the Year award for their duet, "When I Said I Do." The top rookie male- and female-vocalist winners respectively were Brad Paisley and 16-year-old Jessica Andrews.
A wisecrackin' Dolly Parton hosted the three-hour affair from the stage of Los Angeles' Universal Amphitheatre. Said Parton of the 35th annual shindig: "We're both 35 years old. Well, parts of me are, anyway."
The night's most poignant moment: the presentation of the Pioneer Award to the late Tammy Wynette. Trisha Yearwood introduced the tribute to Wynette, whom she called "the original country-music diva" and Parton, Patty Loveless, Martina McBride and Naomi Judd and daughter Wynonna sang Wynette's signature song, "Stand by Your Man."
Aside from Shania, the biggest absentee was Garth Brooks. Although he collected Entertainer of the Year and Artist of the Decade props last year, Brooks was shut out this time around as the ACM's Nashville nominators ignored his underachieving pop/rock experiment, In the Life of Chris Gaines.
The Academy of Country Music's Hat awards are part of Nashville's triple crown, along with the TNN and Country Music Association prizes. Voted on by music-industry types, the Hats are the only major country honors not handed out in Nashville.
Here's a rundown of the night's winners:
Entertainer of the Year: Shania Twain
Album: Fly, Dixie Chicks
Song: "Amazed," Lonestar
Single: "Amazed," Lonestar
Male Vocalist: Tim McGraw
Female Vocalist: Faith Hill
Duet or Group: Dixie Chicks
New Male Vocalist: Brad Paisley
New Female Vocalist: Jessica Andrews
New Group or Duet: Montgomery Gentry
Vocal Event of the Year: "When I Said I Do," Clint Black and Lisa Hartman-Black
Video:"Breathe," Faith Hill
Pioneer Award: Tammy Wynette