Laura Bell Bundy with GAC's Nan Kelley on the set of Top 20 Country Countdown.

GAC’s 62,000 video plays of 2010 are winding down to a final 50.

Trace Adkins, Rascal Flatts, Laura Bell Bundy and Luke Bryan are among the stars who join Nan Kelley for GAC’s Top 50 Videos Of 2010, a five-part countdown that kicks off Monday, Dec. 27, and comes to its conclusion Friday, Dec. 31.

Josh Turner, Blake Shelton, Reba McEntire, Easton Corbin, The Band Perry, Steel Magnolia, Uncle Kracker, comedian Jeff Dunham and GAC’s Storme Warren are also part of the countdown, derived from votes by GAC viewers. Nan shepherds the entire event poolside from the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

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Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

At the beginning of 2010, Taylor Swift walked away with four Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year honor for Fearless. But when the 53rd annual Grammy nominees were unveiled Wednesday night, Taylor’s name was nowhere to be found among the 109 categories.

Stunning? A little, though not entirely. For starters, the eligibility period runs Sept. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010. Her new album, Speak Now, didn’t come out until late October, so that project is ineligible. “Fearless” and “Mine” were both released as singles, and she had a couple of titles on the Valentine’s Day soundtrack, and any of those could have potentially found a space on the Grammy list. But they didn’t.

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Lee Brice photo courtesy of Curb Records.

When “Love Like Crazy” was released to radio stations in August 2009, Lee Brice had no idea how long it would take for the song to hit its stride.

It’s now been on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for 53 weeks — that’s more than a year that it’s been in circulation, and it’s still on the move in the Top 5. That longevity is so rare that only one song has ever lasted longer on the country chart: Eddy Arnold’s “Bouquet Of Roses,” which began a 54-week run in 1948.

Still, because it’s been around so long, “Love Like Crazy” could have driven Lee crazy. Plenty of artists admit that they watch the charts obsessively, and his ascent — 56 chart positions in a 53-week period — was agonizingly slow. But Lee had a pretty good method for dealing with it.

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Carrie Underwood backstage at the 45th Annual ACM Awards on April 18, 2010. Photo by Jenny Dew, GAC Staff.

It’s been a big week for Carrie Underwood, who repeated Sunday night as the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year, and host Nan Kelley brings Carrie and some of her fellow stars direct from Las Vegas to this weekend’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown.

Carrie sang “Temporary Home” at Sunday’s ACMs and accepted a Triple Crown award, signifying her among an elite number of acts who’ve been named Best New Artist, Top Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year. Then at the end of the evening, she walked off with her second straight Entertainer trophy, becoming the first solo female ever to win the Academy’s top honor twice. It came at a time when she’s planning a wedding to hockey star Mike Fisher and when she was preparing for Wednesday’s return to “American Idol,” where she performed “Change.” To top make the week even better, she has the No. 1 and No. 2 songs on the Top 20 Country Countdown with “Temporary Home” and “Cowboy Casanova.”

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Carrie Underwood photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Expect the unexpected.

That semi-silly phrase actually has a lot of relevance to everyday life. Good things sometimes happen when we least expect them; so do bad things.

Carrie Underwood, Randy Travis and bluegrass legend Del McCoury are among a handful of country artists who are very current examples of the unexpected truth.

Here are the developments — both happy and sad — that have taken place in their lives:

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Danny Gokey photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

The fastest way to a Nashville recording contract, it appears, is to do well on “American Idol,” and nowhere is that more apparent than this weekend’s edition of GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown, hosted this week by Suzanne Alexander. Three former “Idol” contestants — Carrie Underwood, Danny Gokey and Kellie Pickler — own the top four slots on the list.

Carrie’s former No. 1 video, “Cowboy Casanova,” regains the top spot from the Zac Brown Band, while her emotional “Temporary Home” clip makes its debut on the chart at No. 2. Kellie Pickler reamins at No. 4 with her Caribbean-shot “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You.” And Danny makes his first chart appearance at No. 3 with “My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me.”

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Carrie Underwood performs "Cowboy Casanova" at "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: John Russell / CMA

Her “Cowboy Casanova” video is still lodged at No. 2 on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown, but Carrie Underwood’s got a new video on the way.

The clip for “Temporary Home” makes its GAC debut on Thursday, and she believes it will put a new spin on the song, which has caused a few folks to shed tears or at least develop a lump in the ol’ throat. The actual song is built around the stories of three people, all of whom are able to put a positive spin on a rough place in their lives by recognizing the transient nature of their situation. The video works a little differently.

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Carrie Underwood rehearses on Sunday, Nov. 8 at the Sommet Center in Downtown Nashville for "The 43rd Annual CMA Awards," which will broadcast live on the ABC Television Network on Wed., Nov. 11th, 8-11PM/ET. Photographer: John Russell / CMA

Carrie Underwood has done her best to keep her private life as private as possible, but the news of her engagement took just hours to become public knowledge.

Ottawa Senators hockey player Mike Fisher asked her on Sunday to marry him, The Ottawa Citizen reports. Carrie said yes, though no date has been announced.

“We’re both obviously excited and very happy,” Mike told The Citizen.

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Carrie Underwood photo by Matthew Rolston, courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Carrie Underwood’s new album Play On, will release on November 3, and a new track from the album will be available for purchase and download exclusively on iTunes every week for three weeks, with each new song also available as a free 60-second preview on Billboard.com. Continue Reading

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