Blake Shelton Receives Artist Of The Year Award At CMT Event, Talks About ‘Crazy Year’ In Acceptance Speech

Blake Shelton was honored yesterday with the CMT Artist of the Year Award, which he accepted with a speech that touched on the headline-making year he’s had.

Blake Shelton At CMTs

Shelton, who has won numerous awards in country music, received his first CMT Artist of the Year Award at the ceremony held Wednesday night at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center. He was introduced to the stage to accept the honor by his longtime friend and colleague Trace Adkins.

“I’ve known Blake personally and professionally for 15 years or so. And his rise to fame has really been incredible to watch,” Adkins said. “He has been named the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year five times. He has had four albums reach the top of the chart, 15 No. 1 singles in a row.”

Adkins added, “On top of all that, he has still got his day job on The Voice. Not a whole lot this guy can’t do, other that keep his love life private.”

Shelton, who shocked fans back in July when he announced his divorce from Miranda Lambert, is now linked to fellow The Voice coach Gwen Stefani. In his acceptance speech, addition to thanking CMT for honoring him with his Artist of the Year Award, Shelton also chose to express his gratitude for the “crazy year” of his life that has gotten him to this point.

“This is awesome, I’ve never gotten one of these from CMT before and been jealous over the last few years. First of all, thank you to CMT for including me on this. So cool,” said Shelton.

“Let me just say that I want to thank my label and thank my entire team,” Shelton continued. “There’s too many people to stand up here and name, but more importantly, I want to say that this has been a crazy year, from the way it started to how it’s ending is so awesome for me. So thank you all. This is a great way to end it for me. Thank you so much.”

At the CMT Artist of the Year ceremony, Little Big Town, Sam Hunt, Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line joined Shelton as honorees. Kenny Rogers received the Artists of a Lifetime Award.