Blake Shelton and Carrie Underwood Top Winners at Rare Country Awards

Blake Shelton
Rare Country Awards
Carrie Underwood

Nashville, TN - (Friday, December 16, 2016) - The fans have spoken! Superstars Blake Shelton andCarrie Underwood are the big winners in Cox Media Group’s first-ever, fan-voted RARE COUNTRY AWARDS, it was announced yesterday via social media. Blake garnered two awards for “Male Artist of the Year” and “Story of the Year,” while Carrie Underwood landed “Female Artist of the Year” and “Tour of the Year.” Additional winners include Kane Brown as “New Artist,” Scotty McCreery as “Grand Ole Opry® Moment,” Joey + Rory as “Duo/Group” and Miranda Lambert as “Fan Moment” of the Year.Charlie Daniels was chosen last month as Rare Country’s “Humanitarian” of the Year.

Fans of winning artists in select categories were chosen to announce the winners via Twitter and were revealed individually throughout the day yesterday. Artists such as Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown and Scotty McCreery also posted personal acceptance videos on social media, thanking fans for their support.

In mid-November, the RARE COUNTRY AWARDS nominated 35 different acts in eight different categories. Fan voting on RareCountryAwards.com took place for four weeks, accompanied by unprecedented activity on social media. 

Below is the final list of winners for the 2016 RARE COUNTRY AWARDS:

Rare Country Female Artist of the Year  
Carrie Underwood 

Rare Country Male Artist of the Year
Blake Shelton

Rare Country Duo/Group of the Year
Joey + Rory 

Rare Country Grand Ole Opry® Moment of the Year
Scotty McCreery sings “Five More Minutes” as a tribute to his grandfather

Rare Country New Artist of the Year
Kane Brown  

Rare Country Tour of the Year
Carrie Underwood - "The Storyteller Tour - Stories in the Round" - Special Guests: Easton Corbin, The Swon Brothers

Rare Country Story of the Year
Blake Shelton’s post-divorce comeback song “Came Here to Forget”

Rare Country Fan Moment of the Year
Miranda Lambert gets emotional over soldier's sign in Hartford, CT

Rare Country Humanitarian of the Year
Charlie Daniels

About Rare Country Awards

The Rare Country Awards is the first all-digital awards experience to honor the year’s best in country music, as determined solely by Rare Country fans. The inaugural awards celebrate the authenticity of country music and the unique connection between artists and their fans. Visitwww.rarecountryawards.com for the complete list of winners.

About Rare Country

A subsidiary of Cox Media Group, Rare Country is one of today's fastest-growing media brands in country music. The site’s ‘Fans First’ mentality guides its coverage of everything the country music fan is passionate about. Visit www.rarecountry.com and follow Rare Country on Facebook and Twitter.

Press Contact: 

Lisa Chader | 615-428-7223

Katherine Forbes

Katherine Forbes is the founder of Nashville based website and brand design company, Designing the Row. Her client roster has grown to include GRAMMY Nominated & Award Winning Artists, New York Times Best Selling Authors, Film Composers, Reality TV Personalities, & many more! She is known for her clean and simple design style and is recognized as a Squarespace Expert and Squarespace Authorized Trainer. She is also the creator of music community, Music Biz Besties, and teaches digital music marketing as an adjunct professor at ETSU.

Her work has been featured on Forbes.com and she’s spoken on panels hosted by YELP, the Music Business Association, Women in Music, and many others.

Katherine believes that "your success depends on you taking action" and she's passionate about motivating and encouraging others to do just that!