Tag Archives: Academy of Country Music

Ronstadt Receives the National Medal of Arts

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It’s turning out to be an extra special year for Linda Ronstadt…

President Barack Obama awarded the 68-year-old Mexican American singer-songwriter the National Medal of Arts at a special ceremony on Monday at the White House.

Linda Ronstadt

During the ceremony, Obama, who hung the medal around Ronstadt’s neck, revealed, “I had a little crush on her back in the day.”

The honor was a particularly special moment for Ronstadt, who didn’t make it to her induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April since Parkinson’s disease limits her ability to travel. The same month her album Heart Like a Wheel was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

A military aide brought her into the East Room by wheelchair, but she walked to the stage to receive her award as a citation was read honoring her “one-of-a-kind voice” that paved the way for generations of women artists.

Eleven other recipients were awarded the 2013 National Medal of Arts, as the nation’s highest award given to artists and their patrons, including DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg and Dominican-American writer Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies.

Ten were awarded the National Humanities Medal, which honors those in fields including history, literature, languages and philosophy.

During her illustrious career, Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. She’s also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award.

Shakira and Blake Shelton Perform “Medicine” at the ACM Awards

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She’s not a registered nurse, but Shakira is a Florence Nightingale when it comes to delivering musical medicine.

The 37-year-old Colombian singer and fellow The Voice coach Blake Shelton offered television viewers a taste of “Medicine,” their new country-tinged duet, at Sunday’s ACM Awards.

Shakira and Blake Shelton at the ACM Awards

Donning a rockin’ red dress and above-the-knee black boots, Shakira delivered a spirited version of the pa-pa-pa-pounding love anthem with the country music superstar. Following their performance Shakira and Shelton exchanged a huge smile and a hug.

The duet is the result of Shakira’s desire to go a little bit country, having approached Shelton after the two worked together on The Voice.

“I told him I wanted to work with Nashville people,” Shakira told Billboard last month. “I was a little tired of L.A. I wanted people with another point of view, real people with roots with whom I feel comfortable working in the same room. And I told Blake I wanted to do a song that had the narrative of a country song, that was picturesque, that was a real song. But it also needed to suit me, because after all, I’m Colombian.”

“Medicine” hit No. 57 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart after the release of her self-titled album in late March, netting her first entry on a country chart.

Shakira to Perform “Medicine” with Blake Shelton at the ACM Awards

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Shakira will be upping her medicine this weekend…

The 37-year-old Colombian superstar and The Voice coach will perform alongside Blake Shelton at Sunday’s ACM Awards.

Shakira & Blake Shelton

Shakira and her fellow coach on NBC’s reality singing competition will perform their collaboration “Medicine” during the country music awards celebration, which will be televised live on CBS from Las Vegas.

“Medicine” is one of the singles from Shakira’s recently released self-titled tenth album.

The Shakira-Shelton duet came from “Shakira’s folks reaching out to us, saying we have this opportunity and would you be interested? As producers we’re always looking for these moments when we can bring folks together. We think its great for the show.”

“Medicine” will debut this week on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart this week at No. 57.

The ACM Awards are handed out by the Academy of Country Music.

Ronstadt to be Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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Linda Ronstadt’s name will forever be etched in the annals of music history…

The 67-year-old Mexican American singer, who released her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013, will be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year, the organization has announced.

Linda Ronstadt

Ronstadt, who was once declared the “First Lady of Rock,” joins Nirvana, KISS, Cat Stevens, Hall and Oates and Peter Gabriel as 2014 inductees.

Earlier in the fall, Ronstadt was modest in assessing her level of achievement during her career: “I always thought I couldn’t sing very well. I was always very frustrated by it, and I was always sorta disappointed by it, y’know? Everything I did always fell short of my expectations. I wasn’t very good when I started, but the good news is I got better. I didn’t become the greatest singer in all of pop music, but I became, at least for my time, the most diverse. I wish it had all been better, but it wasn’t. It’s what it was, and I got to make it better later. I wish the records had been better, but they were as good as I could do at the time.”

Ronstadt’s records were much better than she’d imagined… In her career, the highest paid woman of rock in the 70s has earned 11 Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award and an ALMA Award.

In addition, Ronstadt was instrumental in the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.

In 1987, she released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs. The album’s dramatic, bold, and colorful cover art featured Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia.

The album won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance; and the disc was certified double-platinum in the U.S., making it one of the biggest-selling non-English-language albums in U.S. music history.

The 2014 ceremony will be the Rock Hall’s first in Brooklyn after previous inductions were held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel and also the first in the New York area to be open to the public. Tickets will go on sale to the public in January, with a pre-sale for members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum starting at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31. Details are available at www.rockhall.com.

The ceremony will be filmed by HBO for broadcast in May. Additionally, the museum in Cleveland will be opening a special exhibit dedicated to the 2014 inductees early in the new year.