It wasn’t such a great night for country music at the People’s Choice Awards, held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles last night.
As the fan-voted winners were announced, country music stars inevitably took a back seat to their pop counter parts.
Blake Shelton was the only country singer nominated in the Favorite Male Artist category and he lost out to Jason Mraz. Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift were both nominated for Favorite Female Artist, but Katy Perry took home that prize.
Underwood’s newest platinum-selling album “Blown Away,” was up for Favorite Album was British pop group and obsession of teen girls everywhere, One Direction took the win with their album “Up All Night.”
One Direction also beat out Swift in the Favorite Song category with “What Makes You Beautiful” coming out ahead of Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
The only all-country category was Favorite Country Artist, which was taken by the not-so-country-anymore Swift. Also nominated were Underwood, Shelton, Jason Aldean and Tim McGraw.
Shelton’s reality singing competition show, “The Voice,” on which he serves as a judge and mentor, was nominated for Favorite Competition TV Show, but lost out to the similarly-formatted show “The X Factor.”
The one moment where country music took center stage was when Aldean performed his biggest hit, “My Kind of Party.”
The event was hosted by Kaley Cuoco for CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory.” Over 475 million votes were cast, breaking previous records.
As the competition heats up on American’s favorite singing talent competition shows (i.e. The Voice, X Factor and American Idol), I thought now would be as good a time as any to take a look at some of our favorite country artists who were discovered on reality talent search television shows.
There are numerous singers, bands and duos to have enjoyed various amounts of success after their stints on these wildly popular types on television shows, but in the honor of time, we’re going to countdown the Top 5.
First off are a couple of honorable mentions:
Casey James American Idol Third place, Season 9
James has recently begun to climb the country music charts as his second single “Crying on a Suitcase,” has hit it big with country music fans.
Lauren Alaina American Idol Second place, Season 10
Alaina’s first album, “Wildflowers” debuted No. 5 on the Billboard 200 list and sold 69,000 copies in the first week. The single “Georgia Peaches,” was wildly popular on country radio but her newest single “Eighteen Inches” hasn’t been as big of a success.
And now for the Top 5:
Scotty McCreery
Number 5: Scotty McCreery
American Idol
Winner, Season 10
Season 10 of American Idol was an all-country affair as McCreery beat out Alaina for the top spot. The North Carolina-born singer broke hearts throughout his stint on the show and connected with the young female members of the audience, as well as their mothers. His southern charm and killer vocals helped him to win the show – and the recording contract that comes along with it.
McCreery’s debut album, was certified platinum in the United States and produces to Top 20 hits, “I Love You This Big” and “The Trouble With Girls.” He won New Artist of the Year at the 2011 American Country Awards. McCreery has yet to headline his own tour, but spent the first half of 2012 opening up for Brad Paisley along with The Band Perry.
Kellie Pickler
Number 4: Kellie Pickler American Idol Sixth place, Season 5
Kellie Pickler’s thick southern accent and common “blonde moments” on American Idol made her a quick favorite with Randy Jackson and the other contestants. She eventually finished fifth, but quickly signed a record deal with 19 Records. Pickler debuted her first album “Small Town Girl” in 2006, which has sold 800,000 copies and produced three Top 20 hits, most notably “Red High Heels.”
Pickler released her second album, which was self-titled in 2008, which again produced numbers top 20 singles. Her third album, “100 Proof” dropped in early 2012 and shot her back into the spotlight with the first single “Tough.” The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 chart and No.2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart.
She opened for Taylor Swift on the first leg of the 2009 Fearless tour, before headlining her own tour to promoted her self-titled album.
Chris Young
Number 3: Chris Young Nashville Star Winner, Season 4
Nashville Star is one of those overlooked TV talent search competitions, probably because it was ALL country. It debuted in 2003 on USA before moving to NBC after five seasons on the cable network. After just one season on NBC, the show was canceled.
Not before it produced some huge country music talent, and our No. 3 artist, Chris Young. Young has released three albums which have produced five No. 1 singles.
With winning Nashville Star comes a recording contract with RCA Records, which Young signed to immediately following the show and released his self-titled debut album later that year.
In 2009, Young hit it big with the release of his second album, “The Man I Want To Be,” which contained three No. 1 singles. The Tennessee-native released his third album, “Neon” in 2011 which produced the No. 1 hits “Tomorrow” and “You,” which became his fifth consecutive No. 1 song.
At the 2011 American Country Awards, Young won both the Breakthrough Artist Award and Song of the Year for “Voices.” He was nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year at the 2012 Country Music Awards, but lost out to Blake Shelton.
Miranda Lambert
Number 2: Miranda Lambert Nashville Star Third place, Season 1
Nashville Star’s biggest claim to fame is Season 1 third place finisher Miranda Lambert. Following her stint on the show, Lambert signed to Epic records and released her first album, “Kerosene,” which was certified platinum in the United States. Her second album, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” which was released by Columbia Records also went Platinum. “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” gave Lambert her first Top 10 hit in “Gunpowder and Lead.”
Her biggest success came with the release of her third album, “Revolution,” which came out in 2009. Two singles from the album, “House That Built Me” and “Heart Like Mine” hit No. 1 on the country charts. In 2011, she released her fourth studio album, “Four the Record,” which has produced the singles “Baggage Claim,” “Fastest Girl In Town” and “Over You,” which she co-wrote with husband Blake Shelton.
At the 2007, Academy of Country Music Awards, Lambert won Top New Female Vocalist. In 2008, she won Album of the Year at the same awards show for “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” 2010 was a huge year for Lambert as she picked up two ACM Awards, four Country Music Association Awards and a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “The House That Built Me.” 2011 was another big year as she picked up six major awards. So far in 2012, she has picked up 5 major awards.
Carrie Underwood
Number 1: Carrie Underwood American Idol Winner, Season 4
No shocker here that Carrie Underwood, who is one of the top selling country artists of all time, make No. 1 on our list. The Oklahoma-born songbird was one of the shows most popular contestants from her first audience where she shared with American that she was born with a third nipple.
After winning American Idol, Underwood released her first album “Some Hearts” which went seven-times platinum and was the fastest selling debut country album of all time. Its debuted at No. 1 on the Hit Country Albums chart and No. 2 on the Hot 200 Albums chart. It produced three No. 1 hits in “Inside Your Heaven,” “Jesus, Take The Wheel” and “Before He Cheats.”
She released her second album, “Carnival Ride,” in 2007 and gave Underwood four more No. 1 hits, all of which went platinum. The album went four-times platinum and lead Underwood to being inducted to the Grand Ole Opry. On May 13, 2008, Randy Travis invited Underwood to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry and she was officially inducted later that month by Garth Brooks.
Underwood quickly released her third album, “Play On,” in 2009. It produced another four No.1 singles in “Cowboy Casanova,” “Temporary Home,” “Undo It” and the title track. The album in certified double platinum by the RIAA.
Carrie took some time off in-between releasing “Play On” and her fourth studio album, “Blown Away” in 2012. She spent more time selecting and writing the songs for the album while also getting married and working to build a home with new husband Mike Richards.
By the time “Blown Away” was released on May 1, 2012, it was highly anticipated and debuted at No. 1 on the Country Album, Billboard 200 and Digital Albums charts. It has already been certified platinum and the first two singles, “Good Girl” and “Blown Away” have hit No. 1. She recently released her third single “Two Black Cadillacs.”
Underwood has won 11 ACM awards, seven AMA awards and five CMA awards. She recently announced the dates for her Blown Away tour, which will include international dates.
Boots on Boylston 