Taylor Swift | featured news

Luke Bryan pulled off a shocking win on Sunday night when he beat out heavyweights Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift to win the Academy of Country Music Award's biggest prize of the evening: entertainer of the year. The winner is chosen by fan votes.

As he gears up for a slew of summer tour dates, John Mayer will hit Las Vegas on Sunday for the Academy of Country Music Awards. The newly-single musician will join Brad Paisley on stage during the ceremony, which will also feature collaborations from Hunter Hayes and Stevie Wonder, Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban, as well as George Strait and Garth Brooks – among a laundry list of additional performers.

Swift made it very clear how she felt about Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, telling Vanity Fair: "There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”

... But as Monday nears, Seacrest is focused on this annual rite: "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest," which, with related programming, will blanket ABC from 8 p.m. until past 2 a.m. EST. Booking musical acts has been in the works for months, Seacrest says. Performers include Carly Rae Jepsen, Neon Trees, Flo Rida and Pitbull, as well as Taylor Swift, in the headliner position just before midnight.

Taylor Swift’s “Red” appeared to be the music gift of choice among last-minute shoppers, posting a sixth week in the No. 1 slot in the final week before Christmas and adding another 276,000 copies to its total, which is closing in on 3 million.

Despite rolling out Justin Bieber acceptance speeches about his haters and his mom, Nicki Minaj in pink wig and fake snow, more Taylor Swift ring kissing, Christina Aguilera, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kelly Clarkson, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Ke$ha, Pink, Pitbull, Linkin Park, No Doubt and the triumphant return of MC Hammer in a “Gangman Style” dance-off with PSY, the “American Music Awards” suffered its smallest audience in its 40-year history Sunday night.

Taylor Swift's "Red," released last Monday, is on track to sell more than one million copies in its first week in U.S. stores—the first album to do so since Ms. Swift's "Speak Now" album came out in 2010.

Six-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift will perform at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards next month. But she won't be the only gold winner in the room. The U.S. Women's Gymnastics team - known as the Fierce Five - will be presenters at the Sept. 6 show. Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Alexandra Raisman, Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber won the women's team gold medal at the Olympics this month and have been on a whirlwind tour ever since that included the couches of Jay Leno and David Letterman.

Taylor Swift announced during a live YouTube chat that she will release her next album, “Red,” on Oct. 22. Of the emotions expressed on the album, she said: “They’re all pretty much about the kind of tumultuous, crazy, insane, intense, semi-toxic relationships that I’ve experienced in the last two years,” adding that there’s “nothing beige” about any of the emotions expressed in her new music. She also shared the first single, called, as you probably already guessed, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

With Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift atop the list, look no further than the CMT Music Awards nominations for proof country music's new favorite color is blonde.