Keith Urban (booking agent) flew all the way from Los Angeles to Nashville and back Tuesday (Dec. 1) just to personally applaud the writers of his latest No. 1 single, "Only You Can Love Me This Way."
The celebration spotlighting co-writers Steve McEwan and John Reid, both of whom are British, was held at the BMI headquarters on Music Row. Reid was in Scotland and unable to attend the event.
"I just feel very blessed to do what I do," Urban told the partygoers. "I don't take it for granted. That's why I'm here today."
"Christmas has come early," said McEwan with a grin as he held one of the several awards presented him by BMI, EMI (his music publishing company) and Capitol Records (Urban's label).
No newcomer to country music, McEwan also co-wrote the Kenny Chesney (booking agent) hits "Young" and "Summertime," has had three cuts by Faith Hill (booking agent) and boasts three more songs on Carrie Underwood's (booking agent) current album, Play On.
By e-mail, Reid described Urban's rendering of "Only You" as "pure magic" and added, "You made it your own."
Jody Williams, BMI's vice president of writer-publisher relations, praised Urban for both his artistry and compassion. He noted that Urban recently won three BMI awards for his own songwriting and that in October, he had headlined the All for the Hall benefit concert in Nashville that raised more than $500,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
"If you're talking about Keith Urban," Williams continued, "you're talking about all heart."
Urban saluted his producer, Dann Huff, who stood among the celebrants, for alerting him to McEwan and Reid's song.
"Dann brings me very few songs," Urban said, "and we cut almost everything he brings us."
Urban announced he was going to give his BMI award to Donna Jean Kisshauer, who works for his management company, Borman Entertainment, for her labors on his behalf. When someone shouted out that she had left the party, Urban quipped, "That's what I love about her. You know, she's already out there busting somebody's you-know-what."
To cap the celebration, Urban sat on stool, cradled his acoustic guitar and sang the song of the hour. The applause had hardly died down before he was out the door and headed back to the airport.
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Fans of Creed (booking agent) will be able to check out the rock band's show from the comfort of a theater seat Monday (December 7).
As part of the Sony Digital Cinema Music Series, a full-length Creed concert will be broadcast on 142 theater screens across the country.
"Creed Live" will be the third installment of the series, which is managed by Media Push Entertainment LLC, and will continue into 2010.
The event will broadcast the band's September 25 concert, performed in front of 17,000 fans in Houston. The show is notable for having entered the Guinness Book of World Records for its record use of 239 high-definition cameras for a live music event. The performance will be broadcast on HD and 5.1 surround-sound technology. Select theaters will use Sony's 4K digital cinema projectors.
Creed (booking agent) will be attending and signing autographs at the West Palm Beach screening in Florida.
According to Media Push Entertainment, the series targets those who live in areas that the tour did not visit, "tweenagers" who might not have had access because of age restrictions, and fans who may have attended the original concert and hope to experience it again.
"Creed Live" will expand to Germany and the U.K. in January, with a similar one-night event in conjunction with the international release of the concert DVD. In the U.S. the DVD will be available Tuesday (December 8).
Those with Sony's Bravia television will be able to watch "Creed Live" on-demand for 30 days. In January, the PlayStation Network will offer the performance through video-on-demand.
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Nominees announced Wednesday in top categories for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards:
Record of the Year: "Halo," Beyonce; "I Gotta Feeling," The Black Eyed Peas; "Use Somebody," Kings Of Leon; "Poker Face," Lady Gaga; "You Belong With Me," Taylor Swift.
Album of the Year: "I Am Sasha Fierce," Beyonce; "The E.N.D.," The Black Eyed Peas; "The Fame," Lady Gaga; "Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King," Dave Matthews Band; "Fearless," Taylor Swift.
Song of the Year: "Poker Face," Lady Gaga and RedOne, songwriters (Lady Gaga); "Pretty Wings," Hod David and Musze, songwriters (Maxwell); "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)," Thaddis Harrell, Beyonce Knowles, Terius Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Beyonce); "Use Somebody," Caleb Followill, Jared Followill, Matthew Followill and Nathan Followill, songwriters (Kings Of Leon); "You Belong With Me," Liz Rose and Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift).
New Artist: Zac Brown Band, Keri Hilson, MGMT, Silversun Pickups, The Ting Tings.
Pop Vocal Album: "The E.N.D.," The Black Eyed Peas; "Breakthrough," Colbie Caillat; "All I Ever Wanted," Kelly Clarkson; "The Fray," The Fray; "Funhouse," P!nk.
Rock Album: "Black Ice," AC/DC; "Live From Madison Square Garden," Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood; "21st Century Breakdown," Green Day; "Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King," Dave Matthews Band; "No Line On The Horizon," U2.
R&B Album: "The Point Of It All," Anthony Hamilton; "Testimony: Vol. 2, Love and Politics," India.Arie; "Turn Me Loose," Ledisi; "Blacksummers' Night," Maxwell; "Uncle Charlie," Charlie Wilson.
Rap Album: "Universal Mind Control," Common; "Relapse," Eminem; "R.O.O.T.S.," Flo Rida; "The Ecstatic," Mos Def; "The Renaissance," Q-Tip
Country Album: "The Foundation," Zac Brown Band; "Twang," George Strait; "Fearless," Taylor Swift; "Defying Gravity," Keith Urban; "Call Me Crazy," Lee Ann Womack.
Latin Pop Album: "5to Piso," Ricardo Arjona; "Te Acuerdas ...," Francisco Cespedes; "Sin Frenos," La Quinta Estacion; "Hu Hu Hu," Natalia Lafourcade; "Gran City Pop," Paulina Rubio.
Contemporary Jazz Album: "Urbanus," Stefon Harris and Blackout; "Sounding Point," Julian Lage; "At World's Edge," Philippe Saisse; "Big Neighborhood," Mike Stern; "75," Joe Zawinul and The Zawinul Syndicate.
Classical Album: "Bernstein: Mass," Marin Alsop, conductor (Asher Edward Wulfman; Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Morgan State University Choir and Peabody Children's Chorus); "Mahler: Symphony No. 8; Adagio From Symphony No. 10," Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor (Laura Claycomb, Anthony Dean Griffey, Katarina Karneus, Quinn Kelsey, James Morris, Yvonne Naef, Elza van den Heever and Erin Wall; San Francisco Symphony; Pacific Boychoir, San Francisco Girls Chorus and San Francisco Symphony Chorus); "Ravel: Daphnis Et Chloe," James Levine, conductor (Boston Symphony Orchestra; Tanglewood Festival Chorus); "Ravel: L'Enfant Et Les Sortileges," Alastair Willis, conductor (Nashville Symphony Orchestra; Chattanooga Boys Choir, Chicago Symphony Chorus & Nashville Symphony Chorus); "Shostakovich: The Nose," Valery Gergiev, conductor (Orchestra Of The Mariinsky Theatre; Chorus Of The Mariinsky Theatre).
Taylor Swift (booking agent) has won just about every top music award there is this year, but the possibility of winning not just one, but eight Grammys, had the 19-year-old screaming for joy as the nominations were announced.
"I started freaking out and jumping up and down," Swift said in a telephone interview Wednesday night after learning of her nominations, which included album of the year for her sophomore CD "Fearless" and mentions for song and record of the year.
"I honestly never would have predicted this, eight nominations — I'm ecstatic, and blown away and so so thankful," the stunned country sensation said.
Swift's haul of eight nods was only second to another blonde superstar — Beyonce (booking agent), who got 10. The multi-hyphenate diva, who had an amazing year even on Beyonce (booking agent) terms, including performing at the inauguration for President Barack Obama and the first lady and a No. 1 movie with "Obsessed," was rewarded for her fierce year. The Grammy-winner was nominated once again, this time for album of the year for her double CD, "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," song of the year for her ubiquitous anthem, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" and song of the year for "Halo," as well as other awards.
Another diva was also nominated in all three categories: Lady Gaga (booking agent). The eccentric entertainer, who had five nominations overall, garnered a best album mention for her debut CD, "The Fame," while her "Poker Face" got nominations for record and song of the year. Other nominees for album of the year were the Black Eyed Peas (booking agent) for "The E.N.D." and Dave Matthews Band (booking agent) "Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King."
The Black Eyed Peas (booking agent) were also nominated for record of the year for their feel-good song, "I Gotta Feeling," while the Kings of Leon (booking agent) were nominated for "Use Somebody." The Kings of Leon (booking agent) hit was also nominated for song of the year, as well as Maxwell's comeback hit, "Pretty Wings."
The Black Eyed Peas (booking agent), Maxwell (booking agent) and Kanye West (booking agent) got six nominations each, while Jay-Z and DJ David Guetta got five.
The country act the Zac Brown Band (booking agent) was nominated for best new artist, along with R&B siren Keri Hilson (booking agent), rockers MGMT (booking agent), the punk duo the Ting Tings (booking agent) and the rock group the Silversun Pickups. The year's most popular new artist, Lady Gaga (booking agent), wasn't eligible; her single "Just Dance" had been nominated last year, before she was a platinum-selling act; previous Grammy nominees can't be nominated in the category.
Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said that scenario won't likely happen again: "There will be some changes so that particular situation won't repeat itself."
Wednesday's nominations were unveiled at Club Nokia in Los Angeles as part of a prime-time CBS special. It was the second year in a row that the Recording Academy revealed a handful of its 109 nominees during a televised concert; in the past, they had been announced during a morning news conference.
Swift, who turns 20 later this month, said she was holed up in a Los Angeles hotel room with her mother, editing home videos on her computer, when the nominations were being read. It was then she got a text from her producer, Nathan Chapman, that just read "AAUUGGH!!!!!"
Taylor didn't know what to make of it.
Then he called and told her about her first nomination, song of the year, for her hit, "You Belong With Me." And then the screams started, and continued when the nominations kept coming in.
Besides album and song of the year, she was also nominated for record of the year for "You Belong With Me" and country album.
"To be recognized by the Grammys is the ultimate honor, and all I know is that when I write about this in my journal tonight it will be in all capital letters and underlined four times, and there will be lots of exclamation points in this entry because I never imagined I'd get to write this kind of journal entry," she gushed.
Swift may be in shock, but her nominations are not a big surprise to many: She was the year's best-selling artist outside of Michael Jackson, and her "Fearless" CD, released late last year, has sold more than 4.5 million copies. She is not just a country superstar, but a pop one as well.
Just last month, Swift won five American Music Awards, including artist of the year. She's also won top honors at the Academy of Country Music Awards, the Country Music Association Awards and won an MTV Video Music Award (which was infamously snatched away by Kanye West).
But Swift, who has been nominated for a Grammy before, says winning one would be her dream triumph: "The thought of that absolutely is something that you daydream about."
Swift was in Los Angeles to do a concert and to do some work on her upcoming movie "Valentine's Day"; she had an early call on the set Thursday morning.
When asked how she planned to celebrate her nominations, she said: "I'm just gonna call a bunch of people and tell them that I love them."
The Grammys will be presented on Jan. 31 in Los Angeles.
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Singer-songwriter Ashley Monroe spent the fall on the Ten Out of Tenn
tour with nine other independent artists based in Nashville -- although
judging from their compilation album, almost none of the other
performers draw on traditional country in their own music.
The tour and the album, Ten Out of Tenn, Vol. 3, are designed to
showcase Nashville's musical diversity beyond its reputation as the
country music capital of the world. During their first rehearsal,
however, Monroe pulled aside the group's founder, Trent Dabbs, to make
sure she belonged there.
"I said, 'Now you know I'm country right?'" she explained. "He said, 'Yeah.'
"'And you know I can't really change my accent. When I sing, it sounds country. You know that, right?'
"He was like, 'Yes, I know.' It's so interesting because when we started rehearsing, it just fell into place."
After her long-delayed album was finally released digitally earlier
this year, Monroe is continuing to make her own contribution to country
music. In this interview, Monroe talks about working with the
Raconteurs and Ricky Skaggs (booking agent), finding commercial success as the co-writer of Jason Aldean's (booking agent) new single and writing songs with Miranda Lambert.
CMT: What's your favorite part about performing with Tenn Out of Tenn?
Monroe: This is so different than what I have normally done by myself.
Everybody just grabs a tambourine. You can't help but dance on stage,
which is just a new way of performing for me. It's taught me a lot
about engaging the audience, the Jewel tour taught me that, too. It's
OK if you mess up. Laugh at it. Don't freak out, and they like you
better, because I messed up every single night.
What was most memorable about collaborating with the Raconteurs and Ricky Skaggs on "Old Enough"?
That day was honestly one of the best, memorable, humbling days of my
life, honestly. There was so much love and so much respect for each
other in that room. I made friends with everyone there, and I'm still
really good friends with them. We stayed till, I guess, 1 or 2 in the
morning, and we kept singing the song. We felt like a bunch of kids
just playing. Jack White was showing Ricky his mandolin, and they
started playing together, and then I had a song idea that came up, and
I was like, "Jack, can I take your guitar?" And so I took his guitar in
the corner and just started writing a song. There was just so much
creative energy.
Brandon Benson [one of the Raconteurs] and I are doing a project
together that I'm crazy about, and so we've already recorded, I guess,
maybe 15 songs that will probably come out next year. I'm also securing
a deal, just for me.
Jason Aldean's new single, "The Truth," is a song you co-wrote with
Brett James. How does it feel to hear your song on the radio?
It humbles me, really. I'm just so blessed and fortunate to even have
amazing artists to consider -- to even record -- one of these songs,
and then to able to get it out to that many people. When I write songs,
I automatically want to share it. To get the opportunity to have
something that I helped create be heard by millions of people with
these amazing artists singing it, who I respect greatly, it's just
really humbling.
What do you think of his version?
Oh, I love it! He sings his butt off! He and I have the same manager,
so as soon as I could get an advanced copy of [Aldean's album] Wide
Open, I did. I listen to it all the time and forget that I wrote it. I
literally just listen to the song and listen to him sing it, and
realizing like, "Oh, my gosh. I'm a part of this?" He's an amazing,
amazing singer.
You wrote "Heart Like Mine" and "Me and Your Cigarettes" with Miranda Lambert (booking agent). What do you remember about the days you wrote those?
"Me and Your Cigarettes" was actually called "Your Cigarettes and Me,"
and there was a whole another melody, but I had these words. I went to
her house in Lindale, Texas, right before [2007's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend]
album came out. We were sitting on her back deck and she finished it
with me. She liked the idea. ... She called me the day they cut it, and
she goes, "I just wanted to tell you that Blake [Shelton] and I were
kind of fiddling with it, and it's kind of changed a bit. It's still
our words, but it's a different beat, and we've changed it to 'Me and
Your Cigarettes.'" I went to the studio and heard it and was like, "Oh,
please. This is amazing." She was like, "I hope you're not mad." Are
you kidding me?
Then "Heart Like Mine," she and I went to Pigeon Forge, Tenn.,
together. I'm from East Tennessee, so I took her to Dollywood. I was
like, "You've got to go to Dollywood." We got a little cabin in
Gatlinburg, and we were sitting on the porch there picking on guitar,
and I kept hearing things. She was like, "Oh, my God. Bring me a steak
knife so you'll shut up!" She's tougher than I am. She had a steak
knife next to her. We were like, "Let's write something really honest."
All of it's true to her life.
What made you want to move to Nashville at such a young age?
When I was 13, my dad got sick. He got pancreatic and liver cancer. He
was only 40, and three months after he was diagnosed, he passed away.
When that happened, my life as I knew it went completely opposite.
Nothing was stable. My mom was devastated. ... I had this dream, and I
knew my dad believed in me, and I just thought, "I can't give up. I
can't crawl into a dark hole and just give up. I have to keep going, I
have to." So we stayed in Knoxville until I was about 15. Finally, I
told my mom, "We need to get out. We need a fresh start. I'm going to
write songs. I'm going to sing." We knew nobody in Nashville or knew
nothing about the music industry -- nothing. Looking back, it's almost
like I feel my dad was kind of guiding us, like yelled, "Hey, you two
blond girls, go this way." Because it's just amazing how I met some
really great people that are still a part of my career. Brett James was
one of the first writers that I wrote with, and that's who I wrote "The
Truth" with. I think it was my daddy up there kind of helping us out.
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Carrie Underwood's Play On is spending its second straight week at the peak of Billboard's country albums chart. But there's a new champ on the list of top country songs. It's Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now," which bumps Underwood's "Cowboy Casanova" into second place.
Dolly Parton's Live From London, arriving at No. 36, is the week's highest-charting new album. Also making their first entrances are Big Kenny's The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy (No. 37), Rodney Carrington's Make It Christmas and Mickey & the Motorcars' Live at Billy Bob's Texas (No. 72).
The Zac Brown Band seems to have impressed a sizable number of music buyers with its appearance on the CMA Awards show. The group's Live From Bonnaroo EP returns to the chart at No. 63, and the Cracker Barrel restaurant edition of its hit album, The Foundation, comes back on at No. 75.
Keith Urban claims the week's highest charting new song with "'Til Summer Comes Around." It bows at No. 41. The other first-timers are the Zac Brown Band's "Highway 20 Ride" (No. 54), Chris Young's "The Man I Want to Be" (No. 58), Clay Walker's "She Won't Be Lonely Long" (No. 59) and the Brooks & Dunn-Mac Powell pairing, "Over the Next Hill" (No. 60).
Rolling in behind Underwood in the Top 5 albums are Taylor Swift's Fearless, Lady Antebellum's self-titled debut, Tim McGraw's Southern Voice and the Zac Brown Band's The Foundation, in that order.
At No. 3 through No. 5 on the country songs chart: Luke Bryan's "Do I," Reba's "Consider Me Gone" and the Zac Brown Band's "Toes."
Did you notice this column bristles with references to the Zac Brown Band? Spooky, isn't it?
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Jennifer Lopez plans to include fireworks and an on-stage costume change in her performance at the American Music Awards. "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert will incorporate leather and chains into his.
Lopez and Lambert will be among more than a dozen performers at Sunday's ceremony, and they took time out Thursday to perfect their performances.
Lopez is in top form, but she's still a little nervous. She'll be singing a song fans have never heard before and performing live on TV for the first time in years.
"You know what you're doing and you feel very good about it, but at the same time, you wouldn't be human if you're not afraid," she said after her rehearsal.
She's set to perform "Louboutins," the first single from her new album, "Love?" — due in stores next year. Flanked by backup dancers, the 40-year-old entertainer busts out her Fly Girl moves in a number that begins in a boxing ring and ends in the audience. Famed sports announcer Michael Buffer is in the act, too.
"I think it's going to be good," she said. "Dancing again, singing, the lights and the costumes — it all feels like second nature."
Veteran choreographer Kenny Ortega, director of "Michael Jackson's This Is It," gave Lopez's performance a positive review.
"Awesome," he said after dropping by the Nokia Theatre to watch her rehearse.
Lambert, 27, said he's eager to see how the star-studded crowd responds to his provocative performance, a sexed-up rendition of "For Your Entertainment," the first single off his upcoming album of the same name.
"I can't wait to see people I look up to as artists in the audience watching. I think that will be a trip, and exciting and motivating all at the same time," he said after his rehearsal. "It will be really interesting to see what kind of reaction the number gets. It's different. It really does have an edge to it."
The performance is heavy on leather and chains and includes Lambert dragging a woman across the stage.
Other artists set to perform at the 37th annual American Music Awards include Rihanna, Whitney Houston, Green Day, Lil' Wayne, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Keith Urban, Jay-Z and Carrie Underwood.
Janet Jackson will open the show with a medley of songs, but producer Larry Klein wouldn't say whether her performance would be a tribute to her late brother.
"It's a surprise," he said.
Fans voted online to choose the winners of the American Music Awards, which honor the year's top-selling artists in eight popular genres. The ceremony will be broadcast live on ABC from the Nokia Theatre.
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Sting's "If on a Winter's Night..." may feature holiday-inspired songs, but don't call it a Christmas album. "The whole season is much broader than that," he says. "Winter is about inspiration and imagination."
While culling source material for "Winter's Night" -- which debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 139,000 copies since its October 26 release, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- Sting found inspiration in everything from a 14th-century carol ("Gabriel's Message") to traditional lullabies and poems.
He also collaborated with a host of musicians from the British Isles and performed with the ensemble at England's Durham Cathedral in a concert that will be broadcast Thanksgiving night on PBS' "Great Performances" and released November 23 on DVD.
Billboard: How did you decide on the concept for "If on a Winter's Night ...?"
Sting: It was during last winter that I decided I would do an album based on the season. It has this kind of gravitational pull toward one's roots -- the family home, the cradle or church -- but a lot of people face it without any of those things. The sadness of not being able to go home is probably encapsulated best in "Christmas at Sea," which is based on a 19th-century Robert Louis Stevenson poem about a sailor who is sinking off the coast and realizes his home is on the cliff top. He's pulled toward home, yet he's in terrible danger. That sums up the ambiguous feeling of this record. It's not entirely happy, and I also avoided symbols that I think have been overused, like Santa Claus or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Billboard: What was it like recording with such a large group of musicians?
Sting: My first instinct was to look for traditional musicians from north of England: Kathryn Tickell, who plays the Northumbrian pipes; her brother, Peter, who plays the fiddle; and the Melodeon player Julian Sutton are all from my hometown. We started recording in my house in Italy last January. We sat around the kitchen table with the fire on, huddled up with coats and scarves and explored these songs together. It was like method recording -- it had to be cold for us to begin this thing.
Billboard: Many of the songs on "Winter's Night" are deeply rooted in Christian themes. Did you have to reconcile your own agnosticism with recording nonsecular material?
Sting: I was brought up in the church, and the Christian story is part of my background. At the same time, I can't really accept a lot of the elements of those stories as articles of faith. I think there is one true unassailable religion, and that is the human ability to tell stories -- to make myth of why we're here and what we do. So I put those Christian stories next to pre-Christian stories. I treated them with a great deal of reverence and respect. But again, I'm not singing articles of faith; I'm singing magical stories.
Billboard: Your daughter recently said in an interview that your practice of tantric sex is just a myth. What's the real story?
Sting: People get very silly about what tantra is. It's using your normal life as a devotional practice, which includes breathing, walking, eating, being and making love. All of those things are practiced consciously, and that's really what it's about. Music is my tantra. It's my way of saying "thank you" to anything, whatever it may be.
Billboard: What was it like reuniting with the Police through last year?
Sting: We tied up a lot of loose ends with the last Police tour. I was glad I did it, and people were very happy to see us together again. They came out in droves to see us play. It was an exercise in nostalgia, but we don't need to keep repeating that. I need to be doing something new all the time.
Billboard: Would you like to make another concept album?
Sting: I don't know, we'll see how this one does. It's an interesting way of working, collecting or writing material around one theme rather than just writing songs. But if you said to me, "Are you going to do spring next?" No, that would be far too expected.
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At what may be the height of her early career, teen sensation Taylor Swift finds herself facing the downside of stardom -- naysayers.
The 19-year-old pop/country singer-songwriter heads in to Sunday's American Music Awards with a leading six nominations after a dream year of sold out concerts and the best-selling album in the United States.
Swift will compete Sunday against the late Michael Jackson for artist of the year, and is nominated for favorite female artist in the pop/rock, country and adult contemporary categories, along with favorite album for "Fearless".
But her higher profile, including becoming the youngest person to win the Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year award, has left her open to recent sniping by some music lovers who complain about her voice in live performances.
Just three years after releasing her first single, the pop/country singer-songwriter has struck an emotional chord with millions of fans for heart-felt songs like "Fifteen" and "You Belong With Me" about first loves, being an outsider and the perils of high school.
"I can't think of anyone else (in pop) music who inspires the level of passion in their fans on the scale she does right now," said Rob Brunner, music editor of Entertainment Weekly.
Still, that view is not shared by all and in recent weeks, her detractors seem to have raised their level of criticism just as Swift has seen her star soar into the stratosphere.
"Wobbly" and "embarrassingly weak" are some of the comments -- many from disgruntled fans of traditional country music -- found on web sites after recent live performances, including on television show "Saturday Night Live."
"I think the songs are great, the records are great. But she doesn't have the pipes," said Bob Lefsetz, a former music industry executive and author of The Lefsetz Letter blog.
NO TOPPLING TAYLOR
The negative chatter has done nothing to dissuade fans from snapping up tickets to Swift's recently extended concert tour. Nor has it curtailed sales of "Fearless" -- the biggest selling U.S. album of 2009 with 2.1 million copies, and No. 3 in 2008.
And many industry watchers question the importance of technical ability in an era where Britney Spears can happily lip-synch her way around the world during her "Circus" tour, and where the vocal pitch correcting device, Auto-Tune, is widely used in recording studios and at concerts.
Swift, who plays guitar and piano, never lip-synchs. As for Auto-Tune: "I have never used Auto-Tune in a live television performance, and I have never used Auto-Tune in any of my concerts. That is a promise," she said in a statement to Reuters.
She has performed live for more than one million people and won a slew of awards voted on by fans and the industry. If her singing is occasionally off-key, that's what makes her genuine and is what she brings to the music arena, her managers say.
"(Taylor) tries to hold herself to a better standard but perfection is not one of them. At 19-years-old, I don't know how she deals with the nerves (of singing live). And sound issues are not always in our control," Robert Allen, one of Swift's managers, told Reuters.
Lefsetz agrees with music critics that Swift "is phenomenal live". But he added: "I think it is a sad state of affairs when one of the biggest artists in the world can't sing."
Brunner said comments like that are missing the point.
"I don't listen to pop music to hear people hitting the note but because it connects with me in some profound emotional way. While it may not be a Celine Dion or Barbra Streisand voice, whatever she's got is something that people are really connecting to," he said.
Swift will not be at the AMA's on Sunday because she is on tour in England ahead of going to Australia in February.
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