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Glen Campbell, the legendary Arkansas-born singer and guitarist, who rose to prominence in Los Angeles in the 1960s and '70s and played on some of the most important recordings ever to come out of this city, announced in June that he's living with Alzheimer's disease. Campbell has been performing and just recently appeared in L.A. and the CMA Awards, no doubt, had a challenge in honoring a man who has been paying his farewells to fans and the genre.

By and large, the CMAs delivered.

Taylor Swift was named entertainer of the year at the 2011 CMA Awards, and for the first time in years the artist looked genuinely shocked winning the top prize. The entertainer trophy is awarded for an artist's ability to pack houses and put on a live show, and there's no denying Swift is country music's biggest touring force. Yet the artist's "Speak Now" didn't win album of the year, which went to Jason Aldean's "My Kind of Party," and Miranda Lambert was named female vocalist of the year.

"I'm so happy right now," Swift said, and noted that there's a high level of "camaraderie" in country music right now. She thanked the likes of Justin Bieber, Tim McGraw, Nelly, Jason Mraz, Usher and many more for appearing at her shows. The names appeared to be written on her arm, in largely alphabetical order.

Most honest reaction: Lambert on winning female vocalist of the year: "Seriously?" This blog was harsh on Lambert and her "Four the Record" earlier, but she's still an artist worth watching. Soon, however, especially four albums into her career, Lambert will have to become something more than an artist with promise.

Stay tuned for a full wrap of the CMAs top winners. Other random notes below:

And the big winner of the Latin Grammy Awards is — the new arrival carpet!


As the musical royalty of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds, among them Romeo Santos and Paula Fernandes, pulled up in limos and SUVs at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas for the 12th annual ceremony, the Univision announcers couldn't stop talking about the new arrival carpet.

Rather than the usual shade of fire-engine red, the carpet is a shade of blue-green that looks swell as the backdrop for several gigantic logos of Heineken beer, which happens to be one of the evening's sponsors. The carpet has been getting so much attention from Univision that it almost upstaged the backless, nearly abdomen-less dress that actress-singer Adrienne Bailon was wearing. Bailon is presenting the award for best rock album.

The other word on everyone's lips is orgullo, pride. After decades of being swallowed up in the regular Grammy Awards, the 12-year-old Latin Grammys have established an identity of their own, and the pride that Latino and Latin American artists feel about having a show of their own is genuine.

When Rene Pérez of the group Calle 13 rapped the opening number at the Latin Grammys, he had a semi-surprise guest from L.A. with him.

Right next to Pérez, on stage at the Mandalay Bay Hotel theater in Las Vegas, was none other than Gustavo Dudamel, music director and principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and budding multimedia celebrity, conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, the orchestra that Dudamel apprenticed with as a youth. It's Dudamel's biggest television audience since he guested on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno earlier this year.

Resplendent in a yellow, blue and red sash -- the colors of the Venezuelan flag -- Dudamel led his orchestra in backing Calle 13's hit song "Latinoamerica," an anthemic celebration of Latin culture and identity stetching from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego. Like Pérez and his stepbrother Eduardo Cabra, Calle 13's other half, Dudamel has made a point in his career of promoting music from all corners of Latin America -- including the music of the growing Latino presence in the United States.

He and wife, Eloisa, are pretty good salsa dancers too.

A Latin Grammy Awards show without appearances by Shakira, Maná and Los Tigres del Norte is kinda like Christmas without credit card bills. Theoretically, it could happen, but probably not.

Only an hour into what so far has been a fairly subdued ceremony dominated by soft ballads, those three sets of old pros already have performed and acquited themselves with old-school class and polish. Shakira probably deserves some sort of award simply for managing to quick-change from the ochre ballgown she arrived in into a cream-colored blouse and skirt to perform live onstage. Earlier this week in Las Vegas, the Colombian pop star received the Latin Recording Academy’s award as person of the year, in much-deserved recognition of Shakira’s extensive charitable work as well as her superstar status.

Just a few minutes ago at the awards show, the Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Wisin (a.k.a. Juan Luis Morera) y Yandel (birthname Llandel Veguilla) ramped up the telecast's volume and the intensity with a smoking version of their song "Estoy Enamorado," a nominee for best urban song.

Even more than the Grammys, the Latin Grammys tend to be top-heavy with familiar names, so it's nice to see Sie7e, the Puerto Rican singer, take home this year's best new artist award. Get used to him: You'll likely be seeing him again at future Latin Grammys.

The Latin Recording Academy sets pretty strict rules when it comes to the language content of Latin Grammy-nominated songs. Nominees for Song of the Year, for example, must contain at least 51% Spanish or Portuguese lyrics.

But that still leaves 49% that can be in English, Spanglish, Finnish or Yiddish, if you like. What matters is mixing languages poetically, playfully, wittily and expressively, which is what up-and-coming Puerto Rican singer Sie7e, otherwise known as David Rodriguez, manages to do on bilingual songs such as "Tengo tu love," which he performed after winning this year's Best New Artist award.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, they say. But until the second hour of Univision's telecast, it was a bit hard to tell that the Latin Grammy Awards actually were happening in Vegas.

That's because many of the live performances had been ultra-mellow, musica romantica numbers that lacked the million-watt glitz that screams out "LAS VEGAS!!!" like a flashing neon marquee.

Then Pitbull floated onto the stage in a see-through white globe that seemed to have wandered in from a Cirque du Soleil show. Seconds later, Marc Anthony materialized amid a swarm of lingerie-clad female dancers balancing on chairs like the femmes fatales in "Chicago."

Together, they launched into their insanely catchy, entendre-loaded, synth-driven dance hit duet "Rain Over Me," while the chorines gyrated through an onstage torrent of spraying water.

Now that's the cheesy, irresistible Las Vegas we all know.