Receiving what is the latest in a series of many accolades, 19-year-old Taylor Swift became the youngest person ever to win Entertainer of the Year at last Wednesday’s CMA Awards. According to the singer, she was amazed that it was all happening.
“Tonight I’m just gonna dance around with my band and my crew and my label,” she said after also winning awards for Album of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year and Video of the Year. “I’m going to go hang out with my crew and my band and the people at my record label, and we’re going to hug and dance and jump up and down.”
For Swift, who said the night stood out more than her recent stint hosting “Saturday Night Live,” the reality of her recent success is still sinking in.
“I never imagined that the unattainable thing that I dreamed about could happen to me at 19,” she said. “It’s a lot to absorb. So now the next challenge is to find the next challenge.”
The recent VMA winner noted that it was not long ago that she was just looking for someone to listen to her music, let alone shower her with awards.
“It feels like just yesterday I was knocking on doors in Nashville saying, ‘Hey, would you listen to my demo?'” she said. “I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to open for all those people who were nominated with me.”
While a majority of those in the country music community felt she deserved to win Entertainer of the Year, country music veteran Wynonna Judd is not convinced.
“You want my honest comment? It’s too much too soon,” she said. “Time is God’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. It’s just too much of a good thing too soon. My thing is, being a home-school mom, I want kids to earn it, and I think some time… ’cause mom and I rode in a car for the first year of our career to visit radio stations. There was a making of the star, there was a rising up, and the fans went with us. Now it’s over coffee breaks, the success, almost. You have to play catch up… it’s like the girl who wins an Oscar and she’s under 20. What do you do from here?”