Shania ready to rock country again
By Amber McDowell
Associated Press
After a two-year hiatus, rock-country diva Shania Twain returns to the national stage Wednesday when she opens the Country Music Association Awards from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tenn. But it's Alan Jackson who may steal the show.
Associated Press
Jackson is up for a record 10 awards, including the top honor, entertainer of the year. Last year, he stopped the show with the performance of his Sept. 11-themed hit "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)."
Shania Twain will open the Country Music Association Awards with "I'm Gonna Getcha Good," the first song from her latest album.
Hosted for the 11th consecutive year by Vince Gill, the show's 26 performances will also include Brad Paisley, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney and reigning best female vocalist Lee Ann Womack. The show airs live from 7 to 10 p.m. on CBS.
"It showcases the full breadth of country music and what happened this year — from Faith Hill and Shania to Dolly Parton and Allison Krauss," CMA spokesman Scott Stem said.
While overall music sales are down (10.5 percent), country sales are up: As of Oct. 27, country music sales for 2002 totaled 51.9 million, a 5.5 percent rise from the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Twain spent much of the past two years in Switzerland with producer-husband Mutt Lange. Twain gave birth to the couple's first child, Eja, on Aug. 12.
Twain will open the show with "I'm Gonna Getcha Good," the first song from her new album "UP!," which is slated for release Nov. 19. It's her first network television appearance since 1999, when she was CMA entertainer of the year.
"Shania has long since eclipsed just Nashville and just country," said Neil Pond, editor of Country Weekly and Country Music magazines. "For her to be coming back and launching this phase of her career from Nashville and from the CMAs is a great sign.
"...She's saying 'country radio and country music are important to me,' and that's a message Nashville is heartened to hear."
As for Jackson, his 10 nominations — which broke a record set by Merle Haggard when he received nine in 1970 — include nods for entertainer, male vocalist and album of the year for "Drive," as well as single, song and video of the year for both "Drive (For Daddy Gene)" and "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)."
"Those 10 nominations are not flukes," Pond said. "He had an exceptional song. It's the culmination of a slow, steady march up the ladder for him."
This year, the awards show also benefits from recent or upcoming album releases by country's biggest performers.
Tim McGraw premieres his new CD "Tim McGraw & the Dancehall Doctors" on Nov. 26. "Cry," the newest album by McGraw's wife, Faith Hill, is No. 1 on the country charts and No. 2 on Billboard's Top 200.
"The CMA Awards have the good fortune of coming into the intersection at the same time the biggest stars of the format are releasing products," Pond said. "Given the fact that they've got an almost unprecedented superstar factor, it's going to be a big night."
