American Country Awards

In order to honor the ultimate 2012 American Country Awards artist, Jewel and her husband, bull rider Ty Murray, took to the stage to announce the Artist of the Year winner. It's been such a great year for country music that it was kind of difficult to guess which artist would snag the coveted guitar award.

Blake Shelton has a funny way of saying “congratulations.” The friendly ‘Honey Bee’ hitmaker laid a kiss on Keifer Thompson after the Thompson Square husband-wife duo walked away with three awards at the 2011 American Country Awards on Monday, but the male vocalist wasn’t bothered by it — he said Shelton has really nice lips.

The best dressed artists at any given music awards show are often as news-making as the winners themselves, and tonight’s 2011 American Country Award’ best dressed were no exception. We want to bring special attention to adorable ‘American Idol’ duo Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, who both made our list of the ACAs’ most stylish, which is pretty impressive given their short awards show resume.

Like any great awards show, the 2011 American Country Awards were packed full with practically as many performances as awards handed out. Host Trace Adkins kicked off the show with a medley of his hits before his co-host Kristin Chenoweth challenged him to a sing-off, which was the highlight of the evening, despite being mostly a joke.

The Band Perry brought a much quieter version of their hit ‘All My Life’ to the 2011 American Country Awards on Monday night. The brothers-sister trio were without the team of carnival dancers they had at the CMA Awards in November, but still looked and sounded fabulous.

Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth had a lot of laughs right away as hosts of the 2011 American Country Awards.

Carrie Underwood was the first artist at the 2011 American Country Awards to walk away a winner. Underwood was victorious in the night’s first category for Single of the Year by a female artist for her sentimental and touching hit ‘Mama’s Song.’

The 2011 American Country Awards began with a medley from host Trace Adkins. The 6’6″ singer had yet to be joined by his diminutive co-host Kristin Chenoweth when he sang ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,’ ‘Just Fishin” and ‘Ladies Love Country Boys.’

The stars seemingly braved the cold on the red carpet for the 2011 American Country Awards. FOX News correspondent Ashley Dvorkin commented on the chilly weather multiple times, handling her interviews without a shawl or a coat. She was a trooper. The stars were asked about their holiday plans, how much time they spent getting ready before the big show and how they felt about their nominations for

Carrie Underwood has to be enjoying the 2011 American Country Awards. She’s picked up three Telecasters thus far and hasn’t had to change her outfit once. The blonde country singer seemed genuinely humbled when a presenter announced her name for the second time, and she didn’t leave the stage without giving her husband’s hockey teammates something to tease him about.

Brad Paisley took home a guitar trophy for Male Artist of the Year during Monday night’s 2011 American Country Awards show, as it broadcast live from Las Vegas. Although Paisley was not able to make it to the awards to accept his guitar, he sent in a thank you video that was aired after he was announced as the winner of the category with stiff competition.

Over the past 10 years, Toby Keith has been the most-played artist on country radio. His feat as one of country music’s most influential artists was enough to garner the win for Artist of the Decade at the 2011 American Country Awards on Monday night (Dec. 5).