Keith Urban, Adam Brand big winners at CMC Music Awards
KEITH Urban and Adam Brand were the big winners at the CMC Music Awards tonight.
The stars of country music shone on the red carpet and the stage at the eighth annual awards, now one of the biggest events on Queensland's music calendar leading into the sold-out CMC Rocks music festival at Willowbank.
Grafton's all-sister trio The McClymonts hosted the show, which was broadcast live on Foxtel's CMC channel.
Queensland country music export Urban took home both the International Artist of the Year and International Video of the Year, his sixth and seventh wins in the categories respectively.
He shares the International Video award with Carrie Underwood for their platinum single The Fighter, a song inspired by Urban's relationship with his wife Nicole Kidman when they first began to date.
Urban accepted both awards via satellite.
"This is a viewer voted award so all you guys out there watching tonight I thank you for voting, it means the world to me," he said.
"To be in this company too is a huge honour. I know everybody in this category and Kelsea (Ballerini), Darius (Rucker) I think you are there tonight. It's been an incredible year; you guys at CMC thank you."
Adam Brand also took home two awards for Australian Artist of the Year and Australian Video of the Year for his concert favourite Drunk from his No 1 ARIA country album Get On Your Feet.
Christie Lamb was shocked to win Female Artist of the Year over music veteran Kasey Chambers, while Travis Collins also beat out country stalwarts Lee Kernaghan and Troy Cassar-Daley to win Male Artist of the Year.
"It's super exciting to get nominated because it's the fans who have voted for you," Lamb told News Regional ahead of the awards.
The McClymonts were named Group of the Year for the second year in a row. This is the third time the trio has won the award, which was established in 2015.
Tailgate Drive, the merging of well known Australian country artists Troy Kemp and Damien Baguley (Viper Creek Band) were awarded The Rob Potts Tribute/CMC New Artist of Year.
CMC Rocks festival-goers will get their chance to see Collins, Lamb, Rucker, Ballerini and more at Willowbank over the next three days.
2018 CMC Music Awards winners:
CMC International Artist of the Year
Keith Urban
CMC Australian Video of the Year
Adam Brand, Drunk
The Rob Potts Tribute/CMC New Artist of the Year
Tailgate Drive
CMC Group or Duo of the Year
The McClymonts
CMC Female Artist of the Year
Christie Lamb
CMC Male Artist of the Year
Travis Collins
CMC Australian Artist of the Year
Adam Brand
ARIA Highest Selling Australian Artist
Lee Kernaghan, The 25th Anniversary Album
ARIA Highest Selling International Album of the Year
Shania Twain, Now
