The CMT ( Country ) Music Awards……

[ Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert ]

Still recovering from the recentdevastating floods, Nashville got its groove back in a big way Wednesday night at the CMT Music Awards, country music’s only fan-voted award show.

Emcee Kid Rock opened the show, held at the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville, by promising to punch anyone in the face who interrupted acceptance speeches with “Kanye West-isms.” That turned out not to be necessary, as country-music fans settled in for an evening of prizes, presenters and performances – including top honors for Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert.

The biggest awards – CMT calls them “Buckles” – of the night went to Underwood, 27, for video of the year (“Cowboy Casanova”), Urban, 42, for male video of the year (” ‘Til Summer Comes Around”) and Lambert, 26, for female video of the year (“White Liar”).

Urban gave the most poignant acceptance speech, thanking his wifeNicole Kidman – “Baby girl, I love you so much,” he said – before mentioning the people dealing with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I want to send my deepest love and prayers out to all the families around the Gulf, who are going through an insane time right now,” he said. “We’ve never seen anything like this – emotions I can’t even find words for as I watch this thing happening on TV.”

Lambert, who is engaged to fellow country star Blake Shelton, won for a video that shows her running off with the best man at her wedding. “Let’s just hope that my wedding doesn’t end up like that video,” she joked.

Underwood, who also won performance of the year, was emphatically grateful to fans in her speech. “Awesome fans!” she said. “Awesome, awesome, amazing, awesome, awesome!”

All three big winners also performed on the telecast, along with artists including Toby Keith, Lady Antebellum, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and the Zac Brown Band. Urban sang his song “Hit the Ground Runnin’ ” with John Mayer, who will join Urban for a series of duets on an upcoming episode of CMT Crossroads.

Here is the full list of winners:

More……

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