The Band Perry were the first big winners at the Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday night (09Nov11) as the trio collected its first Cma trophy.
The group kicked off the prizegiving by collecting the Single of the Year award for the hit If I Die Young.
Blake Shelton and Kenny Loggins opened the show at the Bridgestone Arena with a high-energy rendition of the theme from the movie Footloose.
Loggins wrote the track for the hit 1984 film and Shelton covered it for the 2011 remake.
Co-hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood then poked fun at disgraced country star Hank Williams, Jr., who recently found himself in troubled for likening U.S. President Barack Obama to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The duo sang, "Hank, Why do You Drink? Why do you smoke/Football ain't the same without that song that you wrote."
Williams, Jr.'s remark on a breakfast news show cost him his opening theme to U.S. sports show Monday Night Football.
The grizzled country star then made a brief appearance on the arena stage, prompting Paisley to yell, "We love Hank, Jr."
The singers then played with Faith Hill and Tim MCGraw Barbie dolls and turned their backs on the audience to see if the miniatures were "anatomically correct".
As MCGraw and Hill were spotted chuckling in the audience, Paisley looked at MCGraw's doll and quipped, "There's nothing there! Poor Faith."