Songbird smackdown: Taylor Swift vs. Carrie Underwood
On Wednesday, Carrie Underwood triumphed at the CMT Music Awards winning the top honor of video of the year for "Cowboy Casanova" and also scoring the performance prize for her rendition of "Temporary Home" on the CMT show "Invitation Only." Last year's big champ -- Taylor Swift -- went home empty-handed despite three nominations, including bids for video of the year and female video for "You Belong to Me."
That snub of Taylor Swift is even more surprising given that she won both those awards last year for "Love Story" and in 2008 for "Our Song." But Carrie Underwood has proved to be even more popular with CMT viewers. In 2007 the one-time "American Idol" champ took home awards for both video of the year and female video for "Before He Cheats." That year Swift won the breakthrough video race for "Tim McGraw." But in 2006, Underwood won both that prize and female video for "Jesus, Take the Wheel" giving her a one-award advantage over Swift.
While both of these talented women have won their share of awards decided upon by the public, in their most recent showdown before the CMT kudos -- the Academy of Country Music Awards in April -- Underwood also came out on top. She prevailed as entertainer of the year for the second year in a row. Swift was coming off award romps at both the Country Music Assn. (entertainer of the year and best female vocalist) and the Grammys (album of the year). However, she could not convince a combination of ACM members and online voters to give her that one prize missing from her mantle.
Photos: Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood at the 9th annual CMT Music Awards. Credit: Getty Images.
Get Gold Derby on Twitter. Join the Gold Derby Group at Facebook. Become friends with Tom O'Neil on Facebook. Get Gold Derby RSS feed via Facebook. RSS Feedburner. RSS Atom.
Carrie is not more talented than Taylor. She's sweet and seems reasonably good, but to be honest, her music is quite bland and lacks the fiery emotion that Taylor incorporates into each of her songs. Carrie broke into country at what, 23? Taylor broke into music at 16 (14, if you look at her songwriting and not her singing debut).
Taylor's two albums have been certified ten times platinum total. Carrie's three albums have been certified eleven times platinum total. That means each of Taylor's albums went, on average, five times platinum each; Carrie's went only 3.6-3.7 times platinum each.
Taylor is the third top-earning country artist; Carrie ranks at number ten. Taylor was also one of the only two artists to ever win a Crystal Milestone--something Carrie could never even hope to achieve.
The reason Taylor lost out to Carrie on some fan-voted awards was simple: there are so many Taylor fans that the majority of them figured they didn't have to vote since all the other ones would do it for them. Underwood fans knew fully well their dwindling numbers, so they all rallied together and voted for their favorite singer.
In her entire career, Taylor has won 62 awards and been nominated for 100. Carrie has won 70 and been nominated for 118. Divide that by the number of albums each has had... that means Taylor was nominated for about 50 awards and won 31 per album; Carrie was nominated for 39.3 awards and won 23.3 per album. Carrie only won more overall because she had more videos and music to judge.
When you put things into perspective, it becomes clear that Taylor outdoes Carrie in every way.
Posted by: ella | July 19, 2010 at 09:52 AM
this is stupid, carrie of course prevails through it all she is more talented than taylor will ever be!!!!!! taylor is only famous cuz she sings about boys and relationships and only teenage girls buy that crap!!! wat will happen when she is 27like carrie she gotta sing a fdifferent tune
Posted by: bman | July 05, 2010 at 07:00 PM
Most likely Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood got into singing country for the love of making music. They are appreciated by fans throughout the world, no doubt that brings them both tremendous joy and satisfaction. Let us not forget that even being nominated is a huge achievement. That some critics and judges are debating who is the favorite at this moment in time...well...that's just one of the perks that goes along with being successful.
Posted by: Beth Grant | July 02, 2010 at 10:38 AM
dear "kevin,"
i doesnt even matter if you take two off carrie's! she still has tons more awards than taylor. and the fan voted awards say a lot about the REAL popularity of them. (i.e., carrie underwood is well loved and much better than taylor swift.)
love, lulu
Posted by: lulu | June 16, 2010 at 04:22 PM
yawwwnnn...this kinda crap is getting tired as Lady GagGag's costumes....Hey why not a Justin Bieber vs. Donny Osmond vs. Michael Jackson smackdown...who was the most talented child singer/performer...hint: it's a no brainer there really...
Posted by: Cisco | June 12, 2010 at 02:35 PM
In all fairness, you should deduct two from Carrie's "Academy of Country Music" total. They were both fan voted, and mean as much as the two awards she won on Wednesday night.
Taylor has actually won 4 ACM's. You forgot the Crystal Milestone Award she received in 2009.
I'd also like to point out that the VMA she won was for "Best Female Video".
Not Best Pop Video, not Best Female Pop Video.
Best Female Video.
Posted by: Kevin | June 11, 2010 at 08:46 PM