Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood to host CMA Awards (Reuters)

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will co-host the 45th annual Country Music Association Awards on November 9, sharing the duty for the fourth time, they said on Monday.

The two made the announcement via Facebook from the set of their new video, "Remind Me."

The CMA Awards, which annually are among the highest honors for country singers, will be handed out at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and will be broadcast live by ABC.

"We wanted to take a minute to share some very exciting news," Underwood said in the announcement that was available on YouTube. "The CMA has asked Brad and me back to host the CMA Awards in November."

Paisley had also tweeted earlier that he and Underwood were shooting the video, and photos from both that tweet and the CMA announcement showed them on an undisclosed beach.

"Can you believe that?" asked Paisley, who won the CMA Entertainer of the Year award last year. "I can't wait to do it again."

CMA chief executive Steve Moore said both Underwood and Paisley "have the unique qualities of humor, talent, credibility and natural rapport that makes them a hit with fans and the industry audience."

The awards show honors country music's biggest stars from the previous year, with some of the genre's best-known singers handing out 12 awards including Entertainer of the Year, Male and Female Vocalist of the Year, and Album of the Year.

Other awards are Single and Song of the Year, Group of the Year, Vocal Duo, Musical Event, Musician of the Year, Music Video and New Artist of the Year.

(Reporting by Vernell Hackett; Editing by Andrew Stern and Bob Tourtellotte)

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Underwood, stars align at ACM Lifting Lives camp (AP)

By CHRIS TALBOTT, AP Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott, Ap Entertainment Writer – Fri Jul 1, 3:49 pm ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Carrie Underwood turned in one of the most-talked about performances with Steven Tyler at this year's Academy of Country Music Awards. Three months later, though, it was another performance that night in Las Vegas that was on her mind.

Underwood met with participants in the ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp this week. Developmentally disabled campers who attended the session last year joined Darius Rucker on stage during the awards telecast in April, an emotional highlight on a night with a lot of strong performances.

"Just what a special thing that was," Underwood said. "Everybody sitting in the audience and for everybody sitting at home, and obviously the campers on stage, they were loving every single second of it."

The campers were scheduled to reprise that song Friday night at the Grand Ole Opry with Rucker and perform another song they wrote and recorded during the camp, which was founded by the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. It's aimed at teens and young adults from around the country with Williams Syndrome and other disabilities like autism and Down Syndrome.

Campers spent time with Gary Allan, Wynonna Judd, Little Big Town, songwriters Brett James and Odie Blackmon, and producer Mark Bright during the week leading up to their Opry performance. Underwood met with campers Wednesday, talked about her recording experiences, gave advice and posed for pictures.

"I was like shocked," said camper Mackenzie Mansour, a 16-year-old from Lone Oak, Texas. "I didn't know what to do. I was like, `Um, should I say hi to her or should I hug her?' I was like, `Gotta think.'"

Mackenzie didn't waste any time making an impression on Underwood, though: "I said, `Do you want me to sing with you?' She said, `No, I'll sing to you.'

"You can just tell how much they love it and how proud they are of themselves just from recording a song, writing a song," Underwood added. "I think we all kind of forget what a special gift that we have and we're able to participate in every single day. And music is definitely a universal language. Anybody can speak it. Anybody can love it. Anybody can be involved in it. You can just tell how happy it makes them.'"

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AP writer Caitlin R. King in Nashville contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://www.acmliftinglives.org

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Contact Chris Talbott at http://www.twitter.com/Chris_Talbott or http://www.twitter.com/AP_Country.

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Carrie Underwood is "Idol"s' biggest earner (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Simon Cowell predicted it during season 4 and in 2011 it came true Carrie Underwood is now officially "American Idol's" top earner, surpassing season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson.

Last year, Clarkson reigned supreme on Billboard's Top 24 Idols tally, with 10,600,000 albums and 15,900,000 digital tracks sold since 2002. As of May 16, Underwood's album sales topped 12,296,000 and she's moved more than 18,482,000 digital tracks since winning season 4. (Sales data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.)

Underwood has also spent a healthy chunk of the last two years on the road, most recently with the 115-plus-date Play On tour, and while Clarkson's international presence is stronger than Underwood's, who plays mostly to U.S. and Canadian audiences, she's devoted much of 2010 and 2011 to working on her as yet unreleased fifth album -- or spending rather than earning. To compare, Clarkson's tour revenues since her win hover around $32,000,000, according to Billboard BoxScore, while Underwood has pulled in twice that amount since 2006, or north of $66,000,000.

Further cementing Underwood's place at the top of the "Idol" heap is her recent foray into film. Underwood was cast for a supporting role in April's "Soul Surfer," which grossed $39.5 million at the box office, and has also scored guest spots on popular sitcoms like CBS' "How I Met Your Mother."

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

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