Congratulations are in order for young Ms. Taylor Swift who ended up taking home 4 awards, one for each nomination she received this year, at the 2009 Country Music Association Awards which took place at the Sommet Center in Nashville, TN last night. You may recall that Taylor ended up winning a pretty big award at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards back in September but her moment was trod upon by a very rude Kanye West, fortunately no such thing happened last night. Taylor became the youngest performer ever in CMA history to take home the biggest award of the night, Entertainer of the Year. Here are a few photos and some deets from her big night last night:

Kayne West may not be a fan, but applause and accolades from all other quarters keep rolling in for Taylor Swift. The 19-year-old singer last night became the youngest person and the first solo female act in a decade to win the Country Music Association’s entertainer of the year award. It was a triumphant night for the Love Story star who won all four awards for which she was nominated, including album of the year, female vocalist and best music video. And she couldn’t resist the chance to take a swipe at her most vocal critic as the audience, which included Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, cheered on. As she picked up the award for best female vocalist, she said: ‘I want to thank every single person in this room tonight for not running up on this stage during this speech – thank you.’ On a more emotional note, she added: ‘I’ll never forget this moment because in this moment everything that I have ever wanted has just happened to me.’ West infamously interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV VMA’s in September, declaring: ‘Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.’ The rapper became the butt of several other jokes at the CMA ceremony held at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Co-hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley performed the country standard Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,’ but changed the lyrics to ‘Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be Kanye.’ They sang: ‘Let them pick guitars and drive them old trucks, ’cause cowboys have manners, they don’t interrupt.’ Later in the show there was another gag aimed at the rapper when Underwood told Paisley that his video Welcome To The Future was ‘one of my favorite videos of all time.’ As Paisley began to thank his video team, 88-year-old country crooner Little Jimmy Dickens walked out on stage to stop the speech. ‘Excuse me! Excuse me sir – I’ll let you finish later. Now Brad Paisley, I know you had a nice video and all that, but Taylor Swift made the best video of all time,’ Dickens joked. Swift managed to snap Kenny Chesney’s stranglehold on the entertainer of the year category: He won three straight and four of the last five.

HMMM … you know, as douchey as Kanye West is and as deserved as all the ridicule is, I can’t help but feel it’s a bit strange that an entire awards show would decide to gang up on him in this way. Again, don’t get me wrong … Kanye can be an ass and he could use a bit of humbling but there’s just something about all of this backbiting that seems odd. Mebbe it’s just a matter of the Country Music community rallying around Taylor … but methinks awarding her with all those trophies last night is a much better, more refined way to rally around her. For those interested, you can watch the funny old man doing the “Kanye gag” HERE … hopefully this will be the end of that tired old joke. All in all, tho, it sounds like Taylor had herself a really great night … I’ve come to be a fan of hers and I think it’s great that she walked off with Entertainer of the Year last night. She’s riding high these days … I hope she is really enjoying it all.

[Photo credit: Wireimage; Source]

MTV held its 16th annual Europe Music Awards in Berlin, Germany last night and brought out a host of musicians to appear, perform and/or collect awards. Beyoncé turned out to be the big winner at last night’s MTV EMAs but a whole bunch of other folks made their way to the event to celebrate a night of music achievement. Here are a few photos from the red carpet arrivals last night:

But, as I mentioned above … the Queen B reigned supreme last night. Not only did she look fabulous on the red carpet but she also looked fabulous on the MTV EMAs performance stage … oh and she collected awards for Best Female, Best Song (Halo) and Best Video of the Year or her worldwide smash hit song Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It). After the jump, check out some photos from the EMAs stage and find out who else took home awards last night …

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Last night the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards were handed out in a lavish ceremony at the Nokia Theater at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, CA which was broadcast on CBS. As I mentioned earlier, Neil Patrick Harris KILLED as Emmy host last night but the awards show was more than just about him (as hard to believe as that may be). Here are a few pictures from the red carpet arrivals at the 2009 Emmy Awards last night:

While there were a lot of pretty people on the red carpet (Alyson Hannigan looked amazing, as did Drew Barrymore) the real focus of the night was on who won what for which TV show. After the jump, check out some photos from the Emmy telecast itself, see some photos of the Emmy winners in the press room and find out who took home those coveted trophies at last night’s Emmy Awards …

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The Internet phenom mini-musical/web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which managed to win a Hugo Award and a Creative Emmy Award this year, invaded the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards which aired on CBS last night. Here are a few screencaps from the short Dr. Horrible invasion of the award show:

Just when you thought television was safe, Dr. Horrible took over. The doctor, a supervillain conceived by Joss Whedon and played by Emmys host Neil Patrick Harris for the Web series “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” interrupted what would doubtless have been a fascinating explanation of how nominations are tabulated. Decrying “corporate entertainment” and even the awards’ “athletic and luminous host,” Horrible laid out a plan to take over television, but was quickly thwarted by nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). Sadly, contrary to previous reports, the short wasn’t a musical bit. The Internet series won the confusingly titled Short-Format Live-Action Special Class award at the Emmys’ Creative Arts ceremony, held separately from the televised event.

Yes, folks, Neil Patrick Harris — who hosted the Emmy Awards last night — also stars as Dr. Horrible and managed to make his role as Best.AwardsShow.Host. even funnier. In addition to this little invasion by Dr. Horrible, NPH also performed an amazing song titled Put Down the Remote to inspire viewers at home to stay tuned into the Emmy Awards show broadcast last night:

NPH really expanded on the amazing job he did hosting the Tony Awards earlier this year and really hit it out of the ballpark last night. After the jump, check out video of Dr. Horrible’s invasion of the Emmy Awards and watch NPH’s performance of Put Down the Remote …

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To wrap up the day’s coverage of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, let me share some of my personal photos and experiences from the show last night. As always, the folks at MTV were amazingly good to me and got me a great spot on the red carpet to cover arrivals and then got me access to watch the show in person. The whole night was a lot of fun but I have to confess, I almost missed out on the entire thing!

For some ungodly reason, I was not able to get a cab when I needed to get to Radio City Music Hall and because press check-in cuts off PERIOD at a specific time, I had to scramble to get to the venue on time. I managed to find the right subway line to get me to Radio City and then was forced to run around the block 4 TIMES to find the right press check-in venue. I was told the wrong thing over and over and at the last minute, an amazing intern named Tyler found me and brought me inside … with 2 minutes to spare. Once I got all checked-in, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the night. After the jump, check out some of my photos from the red carpet and a couple from inside the show …

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As we are all pretty much aware by now, the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards were handed out at Radio City Music Hall here in NYC last night in a ceremony that was mired in controversy but also featured heartfelt tributes to the late Michael Jackson as well as a few spectacular performances and on stage appearances. Here are a few photos from the red carpet arrivals last night:

But for a few exceptions, most everyone looked amazing on the red carpet. I loved all the shiny bling that some folks were wearing … particularly Kristin Cavallari who wore a simple vintage dress and looked absolutely amazing in it. The show itself was really fun .. the opening tribute performance to MJ was really very cool and except for Kanye West’s douchey behavior, the show was very entertaining. Here are a few pics from the show and some deets about what went down:

Planned and random acts of kindness reigned at the MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday night. Among the planned acts: Janet Jackson’s opening tribute to her brother Michael, whose death at age 50 on June 25 rocked the music world. The production began with Madonna recalling her encounter with Michael and reminding the audience that “Michael Jackson was a hero.” And while “he seemed otherworldly,” she added, “he was also a human being.” And then, the performance began. Dancers crept up on stage with original Thriller video airing in the background. The dancers’ moves duplicated the ones being performed on the video. Then a sequence of Michael’s hits played. Bad and Smooth Criminal led to Scream, his duet with Janet, who broke through glass to make her way onstage and sing along with the video. The loud, almost angry performance had the audience on its feet. After the tribute, Madonna said backstage that “it was good to finally get to say my piece.” And then near the end of the show, in a gracious act of kindness, video-of-the-year winner Beyoncé offered young country music star Taylor Swift a second chance to say her piece with an acceptance speech. The moment came after Kanye West took everyone by surprise early in the show when he went onstage to interrupt Swift’s acceptance speech for best female video for You Belong With Me … The teen country star returned for her live performance of You Belong With Me later in the show. Celebrities reacted backstage. Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong said, “Well, you know, she’s young, I think she’ll get over it. I think he needs to get it over it also. It was very uncomfortable sitting there.” “I feel bad for Taylor,” said Kristin Cavallari. “I think it was really disrespectful” … Other music-related news items had guests talking at the awards show, too. American Idol’s Kara DioGuardi was asked about her new colleague at the judges’ table, Ellen DeGeneres. “I feel fantastic. I feel ecstatic. I can’t wait for January, when we can all be on the panel.” DioGuardi added that she has been in touch with former judge Paula Abdul. “I’ve spoken to her, and she seems to be doing really well, and that’s what matters.” Abdul is set to play host at the VH1 Divas special on MTV’s sister network on Thursday night (9 ET/PT). Faye Dunaway had two divas she was looking forward to seeing on Sunday at the VMAs. “Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. How could you not love Beyoncé?” Dunaway asked. Ne-Yo echoed Dunaway’s sentiment. When asked who he was rooting for, he replied, “Besides myself?” and then added, “I’m here to see Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Pink, everyone. I’m here just to enjoy the electricity.” And the atmosphere was electric, with returning host Russell Brand doling out his brash brand of humor. Among the stars: Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, Eminem, Jermaine Jackson, Katy Perry, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.

For me, the live performances were the highlight of the entire night. After the jump, check out a few photos from the press room and watch a couple of my fave performances from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards …

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The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards opened up with a touching tribute by Madonna for the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson. In what seemed like a semi-off-the-cuff address, Madonna delivered a speech that sought to highlight the similarities that she shared with Michael Jackson in an attempt to outline what went wrong with his life. While some felt that the speech focused too much on her (and, to be honest, I can understand why), I personally feel it was a touching tribute that was very Madonna (right down to the chastisement to the viewing audience that “we abandoned Michael Jackson” with the implication being that we are somewhat to blame for losing him) … and very well suited for MJ’s memory. Here are a few photos of Madonna on stage delivering her tribute address:

Michael Jackson, who was not only one of the most influential forces in MTV’s history but also provided its Video Music Awards with some of its most irreverent moments, got reverential treatment Sunday as Madonna and his sister Janet provided emotional tributes — one through words, one through song. It was a tender, special moment — a rarity for the Video Music Awards. But the mood didn’t last for long, thanks in part to another onstage outburst from Kanye West. Madonna kicked off the show at Radio City Music Hall with a poignant speech about her relationship with Michael Jackson, which began when she was a youngster idolizing the then-child star, then morphed into a friendship when both were at the apex of their careers, and later, grew distant. Madonna lamented the negative publicity that dogged him in his later years. “Sometimes, we have to lose things before we can truly appreciate them,” said Madonna, dressed in black. “Yes, Michael Jackson was a human being, but yes, he was a king,” she told the celebrity-studded crowd, which included Michael’s brother Jermaine and father Joe Jackson. “Long live the king.”

Once Madonna stopped talking about her, she really let her personal feelings about Michael Jackson come to the forefront of her speech and honestly honored his memory. After the jump, watch video of Madonna delivering her address (along with a full transcript of her speech) and watch video of Janet Jackson and her troupe of dancers paying homage to MJ in their own way — in song and dance …

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