Entry tags:

entertainment, music appreciation, music industry, nashville

Corrupted voting? Or, oh no she didn't!
And this is just the CMAs!




I have no idea what Faith was saying before the winner was announced, although some theories are that she was saying "I better fucking win." But there's no denying that she said "WHAT?!" when the winner was announced.

Update: Faith Hill and her manager are both claiming that she was making a joke and that she didn't know she was on camera.

As for the joke: yes, Faith is known as a bit of a jokester, but really, this is a big misstep. For someone who's been in the entertainment business as long as she has, she has to know that #1) perception is everything, and #2) awards ceremonies draw hyper-attention from the kind of casual crowds who have no insight into the personalities of the people involved. As such, most viewers were bound to perceive her reaction as a freakout and, well, see #1.

As for the camera: what human who's ever seen even one awards show doesn't realize that nominees are onscreen while winners are being announced? Not only that, but since she was on camera, that implies that she was standing right in front of a camera. I give her intelligence more credit than to buy that excuse.

In all fairness to Faith, it does seem a little odd that someone who clearly modeled herself after Faith took the award. Moreover, Carrie's performance earlier in the evening was definitely not award-worthy. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it's rather apparent that Joe Galante has a vested interest in the promotion and success of Carrie Underwood, based solely on the number of photo ops he's posed for with her. A man as powerful as he is could certainly (directly or indirectly) influence block voting and sway a number of groups.

The funniest part of the whole thing, to me, is that a number of my coworkers were at the ceremony and had no idea about any of it until they came into the office this morning and heard it from those of us who watched it on TV or read about it from a liveblogging source. It's probably some consolation to those of us who didn't get to revel in all the glamour that staying home may have been more fun.

Anyway, I wonder what the fallout will be with Faith's fan base.