www.Goldderby.com
by: Daniel Montgomery
Legendary country music singer Glen Campbell died on August 8, 2017, at age 81. He had announced in 2011 that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and later embarked on a farewell tour. But now after his passing we can expect the Country Music Association to give him a farewell of their own: he’s the frontrunner to win Musical Event of the Year at the 2017 CMA Awards for “Funny How Time Slips Away,” his collaboration with Willie Nelson.
As of this writing, Campbell and Nelson get leading odds of 1/1 based on the combined predictions of hundreds of Gold Derby users. That includes support from 18 of out Top 24 Users, who got the highest scores predicting last year’s CMAs, and 18 of our All-Star Top 24, who got the highest scores when you combine the last two years’ CMAs. Even if Campbell weren’t a sentimental favorite due to his recent death, it might be hard to beat the combined star-power of him and Nelson.
But it’s been a long time since Campbell made an impact at the CMAs. This posthumous nomination is his first bid in 40 years, and he only ever won twice during his lifetime: Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, both in 1968. So the Country Music Association may also wish to make it up to an artist who can be seen as greatly under-rewarded. Nelson, meanwhile, has been a consistent CMA favorite, winning nine times, including Entertainer of the Year in 1979. He most recently prevailed in this category in 2002 for “Mendocino County Line” with Lee Ann Womack.