Carrie Underwood accepts the award for video of the year for "Blown Away" at the 2013 CMT Music Awards at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday night. At right is presenter Kenny Rogers. (Photo by Donn Jones/Invision/AP)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Carrie Underwood’s awesome week got off to a roaring start at the CMT Music Awards.
Underwood won top honor video of the year Tuesday night for “Blown Away,” capping the evening with an emotional tribute to Oklahoma tornado victims before taking the fan-voted award for the second year in a row.
Miranda Lambert and Florida Georgia Line were the night’s top winners with two awards each.
“The good Lord has been very good to me — well, to all of us in this room — for a very long time,” Underwood, a Checotah, Okla., native, said after the win.
Underwood — the top winner in CMT Awards history with 10 belt buckles, including four for video of the year — also is celebrating the opening of a Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit and five years with the Grand Ole Opry. She’ll also close down the Country Music Association Festival on Sunday night.
All this comes less than two weeks after joining the Rolling Stones in Toronto on May 25 — the eighth anniversary of her win on “American Idol.”
The night belonged to Lambert — a transplant to Oklahoma — and FGL before Underwood’s flourish at the finish.
The duo of Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley won breakthrough video and duo video of the year on their breakthrough hit “Cruise” and then performed a remixed version of the song with rapper Nelly to close the show.
The breezy, easy-grooving “Cruise” pushed the duo to country stardom last year. Their remix with Nelly moved into the top five on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop songs list this week, making it the rare country crossover hit and an early candidate for song of the summer.
Lambert won female video of the year for “Mama’s Broken Heart” and CMT performance video of the year for “Over You,” recorded during the 2012 “CMT Artist of the Year” broadcast.
Jason Aldean made his first appearance as an awards show co-host.
Aldean won collaborative video of the year for “The Only Way I Know” with Bryan and Eric Church, who were among the top nominees coming into the show with Lambert.
Lady Antebellum won group video of the year for “Downtown” and took the stage with mother-to-be Hillary Scott, who is about a month from her due date.
“This is Hillary’s maternity present coming early,” Charles Kelley said.
Lambert’s husband, Ada, Okla., native Blake Shelton, won male video of the year for “Sure Be Cool If You Did” — an award presented by Lambert.
Shelton was traveling due to his duties as a coach on TV’s “The Voice,” so Lambert accepted, shouting, “Honey, I’m drinking for two tonight.”
Underwood had the most poignant moment of the night with “See You Again,” her tribute to tornado victims in her home state.
Swift had the night’s most eye-catching performance, singing “Red” with a color guard of flag bearers while playing electric guitar and wearing a red-and-black shorts-and-overcoat ensemble that had a Sgt. Pepper feel to it.
Nicole Kidman with her husband, Keith Urban, joined in as Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum led the crowd at Bridgestone Arena in a “Wagon Wheel” sing-a-long.
Hunter Hayes took it outside and walked through a crowd of hundreds before taking the stage, and Bryan performed across the street at Lower Broadway venue The Stage.
And Little Big Town sang Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” as fog enveloped the stage and Urban joined them for an extended guitar solo.
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