1. Bon Jovi ($210.6 million)
2. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band ($204.5 million)
3. Madonna ($162 million for the still-underway Sticky & Sweet tour)
4. The Police ($150 million on the second leg of their reunion tour)
5. Celine Dion ($91 million)
6. Kenny Chesney ($86 million)
7. Neil Diamond ($81.2 million)
8. Spice Girls ($70 million)
9. Eagles ($56.6 million)
10. Rascal Flatts ($55.8 million).

No real surprises here, though country fans are pretty loyal, no? Two of the acts on the list are straight-up country, the Bon Jovi tour had country crossover appeal, and the Eagles are a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.

Also, people still really love the Spice Girls! That $70 million take was from only 17 shows, making them the largest per-engagement earners. Also coming in high on the highest-grossing engagements list was Bonnaroo, which pulled in $17 million. (To compare, Lollapalooza grossed $14.1 million over three days, while Coachella brought in $13.9 million over the same timeframe.)

Overall, the numbers are mixed for the industry as a whole. Grosses were up 13% from last year to just under $4 billion, the most ever for one year. Total attendance in North America is down 2%, though the dip isn't as much as last year's 20% plunge (!). This could be attributed to a decrease in overall shows, as attendance and profits per show were way up.

It's hard to look at these numbers and not feel slightly optimistic, even if the chart's upper reaches are mostly populated by legacy acts. It gives a bit of pause to my sometime belief that people just don't care about music like they used to. I think that what concerts offer, though is a rich, visceral experience for fans. I'm of the opinion that if you offer rich experiences to music lovers—nice LP packages, big shows, etc.—they will pay for it. Maybe fans just don't want to pay for crappy CDs with forgettable artwork. Movie theaters still bring them in, and IMAX is booming. Maybe the survival of the music biz is predicated on offering these sorts of big, bang-for-your-buck experiences. Unfortunately, that seems weighted towards the acts that draw these kinds of crowds and profits. I doubt we'll be seeing much new blood on this list anytime soon.

Bon Jovi Scores 2008's Top-Grossing Tour [Billboard]

^* I say this only because one time I went to karaoke in Hoboken, and I joked to my companions beforehand that it would be all Bon Jovi and The Boss. And it pretty much was all Bon Jovi and the Boss, at least two out of every three. People even cycled back and did songs that had already been done not 20 minutes before to the same enthusiasm from the bargoers.

Do you think the Stagecoach organizers contracted Brad Paisley to get that whole "larger than life" effect going?

Stagecoach [Official site]

That durable smash by Atlanta rap deity T.I. moves into the penthouse for the third time since late August. Directly behind it is T.I.’s simultaneous hit, the Rihanna duet “Live Your Life,” which moves up to No. 2 two weeks after it spent a sole week in the top spot.

After I bravely predicted a few weeks ago that the irresistible “Life” would dominate the fall and make “Whatever” a distant memory, the T-and-Ri pairing has had a hard time holding onto the top spot. Last week’s coup by Britney Spears’s well-hyped “Womanizer” was pretty predictable. But the idea that T.I.’s new hit would also have to fight off his older one—a loping, sluggish song that’s neither a ballad nor a club jam—was a development few saw coming, least of all me.

If there’s one thing it shows, it’s that for all our talk here in recent weeks about the dominance of digital sales on the charts these days, airplay still matters. “Whatever” wouldn’t still be competing for the top slot without radio’s fervent support.

On the Hot 100, “Whatever You Like” is in its sixth non-consecutive week at No. 1, but the more telling statistic is it’s now in its fifth week as the most-played song in the country. It’s not doing shabbily at iTunes and other digital stores, mind you, shifting 154,000 downloads. That makes it the chart week’s fourth-biggest seller—impressive, especially for a two-month-old single, but not enough to top the big chart if it weren’t for all those radio spins.

The airplay is coming from multiple formats—from the more predictable R&B/hip-hop and rhythmic Top 40 stations, where it’s currently or recently has been top-ranked; to mainstream Top 40, where it’s now in the top five; and even the Latin rhythm format, where it recently made the top 10. (In any given week, Latin stations spin a half-dozen or more current English-language hits alongside regulars like Juanes and Daddy Yankee.)

One of the smarter comments I received this week on my special bonus column on AC/DC’s singles-chart history came from a self-proclaimed former “radio guy” who worked at a rock station in the ’80s and ’90s. He observed how certain hits would be affected by “dayparting,” the industry term for segregating certain songs to parts of the day when they’re likely to find favor with that hour’s listeners. The average radio station doesn’t actually have one monolithic type of listener all day and night—older listeners tend to tune in mostly during the day, up through drive time, then leave the radio to teens at night, when more aggressive or adventurous stuff can be played.

In that light, it probably doesn’t hurt that “Whatever You Like” is T.I.’s first hit in which he does almost no rapping—except for his opening chitchat as the song starts, the whole song is sung. That means program directors can safely slot it in both daylight hours, when older demographics would object to anything with heavy straight rapping, and at night, when T.I.-loving kids will sing along.

In a normal post-iTunes era week on the Hot 100, whatever’s on top of the Digital Songs list is also No. 1 on the big chart. That’s because the sales list tends to be topped by the smash of the moment—new records enjoying a burst of sales from eager fans—and those sales can be so large, they swamp whatever advantage the most-played radio hits have. But in certain weeks where the top-sellers are all relatively evenly matched, like this week, airplay makes a big difference.

Among the top four digital sellers—Spears’ “Womanizer,” the T.I.–Rihanna duet, Taylor Swift’s new hit “Fearless,” and T.I.’s “Whatever”—there’s only a difference of about 47,000 downloads. That might sound like a lot, but just for comparison, last week the spread among the top four was almost 130,000 copies; the top single (Britney’s) outsold the runner-up (T.I./Rihanna) by almost 60,000 alone.

Meanwhile, over on the Hot 100 Airplay list, which ranks spins across all current-based radio formats, these four records are all over the place: “Whatever” ranks first, “Life” ranks fourth, “Womanizer” is 38th, and Swift’s latest isn’t registering at all (radio is still focusing on her older “Love Story”). That radio lead is what makes “Whatever” the overall leader on the Hot 100.

As impressive as “Whatever” looks right now, beneath the surface “Life” is still the outperformer. The duet’s fourth-place ranking at radio is in only its fourth week charting—absurdly fast, considering how slowly programmers normally add new records. (The Britney record is also in its fourth week at radio and isn’t doing nearly that well, hampered in part by the smaller number of radio formats playing her.) “Life” moved from No. 45 on the airplay chart three weeks ago, to No. 22, then No. 9, now No. 4, an Olympian feat of playlist penetration. All this, and it’s still selling like crazy: at 198,000 copies, “Life” is only about 3,000 short of Britney’s digital downloads.

What I’m saying is, there’s a great chance “Live Your Life” will return to No. 1, even if “Whatever” continues to get more airplay and “Womanizer” continues to outsell it. When “Life” went to No. 1 two weeks ago, its record-setting sales total made airplay numbers moot. Now that its sales are less massive (but still big!) airplay matters, and now the song’s got lots of it. Another week of rising airplay—let’s say it becomes the third-most-played radio hit—and sales in the neighborhood of 200K again would likely give it enough chart points to recapture the flag.

That is, unless something stops it. A song completely out of left field—currently outside the Top Five, Top 10 or even Top 40—could shoot to No. 1 on a big sales burst. Of the last four No. 1 hits, three (“Whatever,” “Life,” “Womanizer”) shot to the top from below No. 70, and we might see yet another pole-vaulter next week. At this writing, the top seller on iTunes is Beyoncé’s “If I Were a Boy,” which just hit the store on Tuesday and has been charting on the Hot 100 for two weeks on airplay alone. Currently No. 68, “Boy” will surely leap into the Top Five next week and, with a sales total similar to T.I.’s or Britney’s, could very well leap to the top.

Nonetheless, if there’s one part of my faulty pro-“Life” prediction that might bear out, it’s that the O-Zone–sampling hit will likely be wafting from radios right through the holidays, whether it makes a comeback to the penthouse or not.

Here's a rundown of the rest of this week's charts:

• How ’bout another prediction? “Fearless,” that new hit by Taylor Swift, which makes its Hot 100 debut at No. 9, will drop big-time on next week’s chart. Why so confident? Well, for one thing, as I hinted above, the debut is due entirely to sales and not airplay, and that won’t last. (Check the current standings at iTunes: “Fearless” is down to No. 12, after topping Apple’s list last week and starting at No. 3 on Billboard’s full Digital Songs list.) For another, most of the blockbuster digital sellers we’ve seen in the last few weeks have enjoyed a week or two of high Hot 100 placement before falling, sometimes precipitously. Take a look at these performance snapshots by recent top sellers that had big Hot 100 debuts:

Taylor Swift, “Change”: Debuted at No. 10 (August 30), two weeks later at No. 100, now off the chart.
Taylor Swift, “Love Story”: Debuted at No. 16 (September 27), next week No. 5, now No. 14.
Christina Aguilera, “Keeps Gettin’ Better”: Debuted at No. 7 (October 18), last week No. 17, now No. 27.
Nickelback, “Gotta Be Somebody”: Debuted at No. 10 (October 18), last week No. 16, now No. 17.
The Killers, “Human”: Debuted at No. 32 (October 18), last week No. 52, now No. 58.
David Cook, “Light On”: Debuted at No. 17 (October 18), last week No. 66, now off the chart.

In this light, the aforementioned hits by Britney and T.I. look especially impressive—even after their initial weeks of big sales, they’re still riding high. But here’s the difference: those high-flying Britney and T.I. hits began their lives with solid radio airplay, then piled big sales onto it. They didn’t debut high on the chart, like the hits listed above from Swift, Aguilera et al. If those songs had posted strong airplay first, they’d have debuted low on the Hot 100, then jumped up the chart when digital sales came pouring in. Instead, they had anemic airplay, scored a week or two of big sales from rabid fans, but then had nothing to keep them aloft when sales fell back to earth.

Are you detecting the theme of this week’s column? Sales are flashy and overpowering, but airplay is what keeps hits alive.

• Toby Keith takes over No. 1 on Hot Country Songs with “She Never Cried in Front of Me (Even When People Accused Her of Spending Too Much on Her Campaign Wardrobe).” (Okay, I made up the part in parentheses.)

With that move, Keith retains his lead as the guy with the most country chart-toppers this decade. Since 2000, Mr. Boot-in-Yer-Ass has topped the chart 14 times (out of 17 times total in his career). That beats 12 post-millennial No. 1s each for two other fellas: Phillies scion and Obama supporter Tim McGraw, and weeping lonelyheart Kenny Chesney, who topped last week’s chart and gets evicted by Keith this week.

• Speaking of Chesney, he appears to be soothing his woman troubles by dueting with an array of different men. Our own Michaelangelo Matos wrote me this morning to point out that he’s got three duets in the lower 50s of the Country chart: “I'm Alive” by Kenny Chesney with Dave Matthews is at No. 55; “That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)” credited to Kenny Chesney with Willie Nelson is at No. 56; and “Down the Road” by Kenny Chesney with Mac McAnally checks in at No. 59. All come from Chesney’s new chart-topping album Lucky Old Sun, which generates no less than one-tenth of this week’s 60-position Country chart: six new Chesney songs are being spun enough by radio stations to make the list.

• Don’t look now, but Kings of Leon, the so-called “Southern Strokes,” are charting at least as well as the actual Strokes. “Sex on Fire,” already a No. 1 pop hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, is now a Top Five Modern Rock hit here. Its No. 5 peak matches that of the Strokes’ highest-charting rock song, 2002’s “Last Nite.” Does the Christina Aguilera mashup come next?

Top 10s
Last week's position and total weeks charted in parentheses (Digital Songs chart includes total downloads/percentage change in parentheses):

Hot 100
1. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (LW No. 2, 11 weeks)
2. T.I. feat. Rihanna, "Live Your Life" (LW No. 3, 4 weeks)
3. Pink, "So What" (LW No. 4, 9 weeks)
4. Britney Spears, "Womanizer" (LW No. 1, 3 weeks)
5. Katy Perry, "Hot N Cold" (LW No. 5, 12 weeks)
6. Rihanna, "Disturbia" (LW No. 6, 18 weeks)
7. Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne, "Let It Rock" (LW No. 7, 8 weeks)
8. Ne-Yo, "Miss Independent" (LW No. 9, 9 weeks)
9. Taylor Swift, "Fearless" (CHART DEBUT)
10. T-Pain feat. Lil Wayne, "Can't Believe It" (LW No. 8, 12 weeks)

Hot Digital Songs
1. Britney Spears, "Womanizer" (LW No. 1, 201,000 downloads)
2. T.I. feat. Rihanna, "Live Your Life" (LW No. 2, 198,000 downloads)
3. Taylor Swift, "Fearless" (CHART DEBUT, 162,000 downloads)
4. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (LW No. 3, 154,000 downloads)
5. Pink, "So What" (LW No. 4, 147,000 downloads)
6. Katy Perry, "Hot N Cold" (LW No. 7, 141,000 downloads)
7. Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne, "Let It Rock" (LW No. 5, 139,000 downloads)
8. Kanye West, "Love Lockdown" (LW No. 7, 95,000 downloads)
9. Taylor Swift, "Love Story" (LW No. 9, 94,000 downloads)
10. Rihanna, "Disturbia" (LW No. 11, 87,000 downloads)

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
1. Jennifer Hudson, "Spotlight" (LW No. 1, 23 weeks)
2. Ne-Yo, "Miss Independent" (LW No. 3, 13 weeks)
3. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (LW No. 2, 14 weeks)
4. T-Pain feat. Lil Wayne, "Can't Believe It," (LW No. 4, 15 weeks)
5. Jazmine Sullivan, "Need U Bad" (LW No. 5, 25 weeks)
6. Lil Wayne feat. Bobby Valentino, "Mrs. Officer" (LW No. 6, 16 weeks)
7. T.I. feat. Rihanna, "Live Your Life" (LW No. 7, 6 weeks)
8. Jazmine Sullivan, "Bust Your Windows" (LW No. 11, 6 weeks)
9. Slim feat. Yung Joc, "So Fly" (LW No. 8, 20 weeks)
10. Beyoncé, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (LW No. 20, 2 weeks)

Hot Country Songs
1. Toby Keith, "She Never Cried in Front of Me" (LW No. 2, 17 weeks)
2. Kenny Chesney, "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" (LW No. 1, 12 weeks)
3. Carrie Underwood, "Just a Dream" (LW No. 3, 15 weeks)
4. Taylor Swift, "Love Story" (LW No. 7, 6 weeks)
5. Darius Rucker, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" (LW No. 4, 27 weeks)
6. Tim McGraw, "Let It Go" (LW No. 6, 14 weeks)
7. Zac Brown Band, "Chicken Fried" (LW No. 11, 18 weeks)
8. Sugarland, "Already Gone" (LW No. 9, 8 weeks)
9. Montgomery Gentry, "Roll with Me" (LW No. 10, 13 weeks)
10. Brad Paisley, "Waitin' on a Woman" (LW No. 8, 19 weeks)

Hot Modern Rock Tracks
1. The Offspring, "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" (LW No. 1, 13 weeks)
2. Weezer, "Troublemaker" (LW No. 2, 15 weeks)
3. Rise Against, "Re-Education (Through Labor)" (LW No. 4, 9 weeks)
4. Apocalyptica feat. Adam Gontier, "I Don't Care" (LW No. 3, 16 weeks)
5. Kings of Leon, "Sex on Fire" (LW No. 8, 9 weeks)
6. The Killers, "Human" (LW No. 6, 4 weeks)
7. Staind, "Believe" (LW No. 5, 17 weeks)
8. Metallica, "The Day That Never Comes" (LW No. 7, 9 weeks)
9. Theory of a Deadman, "Bad Girlfriend" (LW No. 9, 18 weeks)
10. Nickelback, "Gotta Be Somebody" (LW No. 15, 3 weeks)

A look at how the two albums differ:

• The single-disc version of Lucky Old Sun has 11 tracks on it, including duets with Dave Matthews and Willie Nelson.
• The double-disc version has that 11-track CD as Disc 1; Disc 2 has four live tracks, two videos (one is of the video introduction to his tour), and "a chance to be one of two lucky winners of the 'Kick it Off with Kenny' contest, in which the winners will be flown to the opening of Kenny's 2009 tour (date/location are pending)."

On Amazon, the price differential between these two editions is $2 ($9.99/$11.99); at Wal-Mart, it's $2.16 ($9.72 / $11.88); on iTunes, it's $4 ($9.99/$13.99). Could two or four dollars separate an impulse buy from something that's worth an extra week's wait? First-day projections haven't come out yet, but I'm very interested to see if the economy has resulted in "deluxe editions" not being as sales-padding as they've been in the past—even if they beat the albums they're blowing out to the marketplace.

Not that these sales will prevent Chesney from being pushed aside next week—AC/DC is apparently on track to sell 800,000-plus copies of the Wal-Mart-only Black Ice. But maybe people will throw Sun in their carts alongside it?

• "Mr. Chesney, who tours constantly, questions his own striving in 'The Life' and in a plaintively introspective version of the pop standard 'That Lucky Old Sun,' a duet that hands Willie Nelson the verse about feeling 'wrinkled and gray.' Through the album, Mr. Chesney steers the songs toward half-smiles or at least a certain resigned acceptance, but he still sounds less complacent than ever. The question is whether, at 40, Mr. Chesney has lately decided that life doesn’t always have happy endings, or whether he’s just working too hard." [NYT]

• "Chesney wrote or co-wrote most of the best songs, indicating that working through the weariness can be the best therapy." [USA Today]

• "There's no country-rock bravado, just gentle acoustic guitars, reassuring piano accents and occasional steel drums to add the requisite island flavor, soothing stuff you'd expect on a country version of 'The Wave' radio station. He counts his blessings ('I'm Alive,' 'Everybody Wants to Go To Heaven') and leans on friends, metaphorically and literally with guest spots from Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson and the Wailers, all of whom show up to help jump start the healing process. [LAT]

• "It remains to be seen whether recession-hit country fans will see a message about the healing powers of leisurely sailing as untimely." [EW]

1. Kenny Chesney: $62.7 million
2. The Police: $44.5 million
3. Tom Petty/Steve Winwood: $34.6 million
4. Dave Matthews Band: $30.7 million
5. Bruce Springsteen: $28.4 million
6. Billy Joel: $25.6 million
7. The Jonas Brothers: $25.1 million
8. American Idols Live: $24.6 million
9. Neil Diamond: $22.4 million
10. Rascal Flatts: $21.4 million

For the record, I attended two of the above concerts—although I only paid to get into one of them. (Sadly, I missed the American Idol tour, which means I was deprived of the chance to see Ramiele Malubay show some personality.)

Economy can't cool summer tours: Earnings rise 5% [USA Today]

1. Listen to your entire iTunes library, A to Z. Surely most of the readers of this site have 31 days' worth of music around their house, if not on their hard drives. (OK, a recent cull caused my iTunes timer to drop to 28.2 days, but I have more than enough CDs that I haven't yet imported to make up the gap.)

2. Travel through the David Archuleta corn maze. Sure, he's about as "rock" as the OneRepublic guy, but this maze, located in David's home state of Utah, has an undeniable appeal, thanks to kitsch factor of getting lost in his eyes being way too high. If some metal fan would like to step up to the plate and make, say, a maze out of the Slayer logo, I'll be happy to spend a chilly October night fighting my way through that instead.

3. A weekend getaway to Kate Pierson's motel. The rooms are pretty cheap (the six-person Lazy Lodge, which has its own swimming hole (!), will only set each of your friends back a hundred bucks), the toiletries are collected from Kate's jaunts around the world with the B-52's, and the kitchens have all the cocktail fixings you'll need. And the upstate New York location is especially good for those of us who missed All Tomorrow's Parties a few weeks back, cough cough.

4. Open a pool based around betting on which awful musicians with new albums coming out will warble "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America" during the baseball playoffs. A glance at this page of upcoming releases reveals that baseball fans will probably be greeted by the vocal chords of Kenny Chesney^*, Chris Cornell, and the Hinder guy soon, while AC/DC and Oasis are among the "not bloody likely, but wouldn't it be awesome" contenders.

5. Spend all your waking moments obsessing over what music's "October surprise" will be this year. A year ago last night, Radiohead coined the phrase "the Radiohead model" by digitally releasing In Rainbows 10 days after it was done. A few weeks later, OiNK got turned into crispy bacon by the UK authorities. So what's going to happen this year? Will Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen, and the Arcade Fire announce a mini-tour in support of Barack Obama? Will Thom Yorke let the world know that he thinks Sarah Palin is "not all that bad, plus she's got right nice glasses"? Is Apple going to call the major labels' bluff and shut down iTunes? Or none of those things? Let's play futurist!

^* Trust me on this one. He's a lock. I would put down money on it in a heartbeat.

"I think it's a complete disrespect of the artist — what they've lowered us to, to get entertainer of the year. ... Because of that, it really diminishes the integrity of the music that we're making and how much work goes into it. That's what really matters. That's what entertainer of the year really is. It's not about flying somebody to some shows and giving free songs away — and giving this and that — and seeing how hard you can push people's buttons on the Internet. As much as I love the ACMs and what they've done for my life, that's how I really feel about it.. And I can say that because I won tonight."

In being named entertainer of the year four times in a row, he ties Brooks' ACM record of four consecutive wins by a solo artist. Alabama won the award five straight years.

"I'm honored to be up here for four years in a row to tie Garth's record, believe me," Chesney said. "I may not ever win it again, but I know I've achieved this. I just think we all need to be careful how we give this award away in the future. ... If somebody stands up here in the future, they should do it because they sacrificed a tremendous amount."

Might this be a slam at none other than the noxious Rascal Flatts, who gave free live MP3s to people who voted in the Entertainer Of The Year category for a day last week—and still lost thanks to the ACM higher-ups discounting said bribed ballots? God, I hope so.

To promote participation among its fan base, Rascal Flatts last week offered a free MP3 download — a previously unreleased live version of "Winner at a Losing Game" — to those voting for the band in the entertainer category. Although Rascal Flatts did not violate any of the ACM's guidelines, the offer was removed from the group's Web site after just one day. According to The Tennessean newspaper, the ACM identified those online votes and did not count them in the final tally.

Asked about his attitude about the MP3 campaign, Chesney said, "My first reaction to it wasn't anything towards the act that put out the MP3 offer because I love them boys. And they deserve to be up here at some point. No doubt about it. It's just an example of how they [the industry] have made us conduct ourselves to stand up here. I could talk about it all night, but it should be about the music, and it should be about the integrity of it and how much work goes into making it. That's all I thought about. ... It wasn't anything directed towards anybody. It was just the whole thing. I don't think I'm wrong."

Ah, Kenny. "About the music"? In 2008! Gosh, you make it all sound so... quaint.

href="http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1587688/kenny-chesney-criticizes-acm-for-fan-voting-in-entertainer-category.jhtml">Kenny Chesney Criticizes ACM for Fan Voting in Entertainer Category [CMT; HT to all our awesome commenters]

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
- Kenny Chesney
- Brad Paisley
- Rascal Flatts
- George Strait
- Keith Urban

TOP MALE VOCALIST
- Rodney Atkins
- Kenny Chesney
- Brad Paisley
- George Strait
- Keith Urban

TOP FEMALE VOCALIST
- Miranda Lambert
- Martina McBride
- LeAnn Rimes
- Taylor Swift
- Carrie Underwood

TOP VOCAL GROUP
- Diamond Rio
- Eagles
- Emerson Drive
- Little Big Town
- Rascal Flatts

TOP VOCAL DUO
- Big & Rich
- Brooks & Dunn
- Halfway To Hazard
- Montgomery Gentry
- Sugarland

TOP NEW MALE VOCALIST
- Luke Bryan
- Jack Ingram
- Jake Owen

TOP NEW FEMALE VOCALIST
- Sarah Buxton
- Kellie Pickler
- Taylor Swift

TOP NEW DUO OR VOCAL GROUP
- Carolina Rain
- Lady Antebellum
- The Wreckers

ALBUM OF THE YEAR [Award to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company]
- 5th Gear - Brad Paisley (Arista Nashville)
Produced by Chris DuBois, Frank Rogers
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Miranda Lambert (Columbia)
Produced by Frank Liddell, Mike Wrucke
- Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates - Kenny Chesney (BNA)
Produced by Buddy Cannon, Kenny Chesney
- If You're Going Through Hell - Rodney Atkins (Curb)
Produced by Rodney Atkins, Ted Hewitt
- Taylor Swift -Taylor Swift (Big Machine)
Produced by Scott Borchetta, Nathan Chapman
# 6 Produced by Robert Ellis Orrall

SINGLE RECORD OF THE YEAR [Award to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company]
- Don't Blink
Kenny Chesney, Produced by Buddy Cannon, Kenny Chesney
BNA
- Famous In A Small Town
Miranda Lambert, Produced by Frank Liddell, Mike Wrucke
Columbia
- Lost In This Moment
Big & Rich, Produced by Big Kenny, John Rich Warner Bros/WRN
- Stay
Sugarland, Produced by Kristian Bush, Byron Gallimore, Jennifer Nettles
Mercury
- Watching Airplanes
Gary Allan, Produced by Gary Allan , Mark Wright
MCA Nashville

SONG OF THE YEAR [Award to Composer(s)/Publisher(s)/Artist(s)]
- Don't Blink
Kenny Chesney
Writers: Casey Beathard, Chris Wallin
Publishers: Lavender Zoo Music (BMI), Mama's Dream Music (ASCAP), Sony/ATV Acuff Rose (BMI), WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)
- Lost In This Moment
Big & Rich
Writers: Keith Anderson, Rodney Clawson, John Rich
Publishers: EMI April Music, Inc. (ASCAP), Romeo Cowboy Music (ASCAP), WB Music Corp. (ASCAP), Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI), Writer's Extreme Music (BMI)
- Moments
Emerson Drive
Writers: Dave Berg, Annie Tate, Sam Tate
Publishers: Gravitron (SESAC), WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)
- Watching You
Rodney Atkins
Writers: Rodney Atkins, Steve Dean, Brian White
Publishers: Bethar Music (BMI), Mike Curb Music (BMI), Multisongs (SESAC), Songs From The White House (SESAC)
- Stay
Sugarland
Writer: Jennifer Nettles
Publishers: Jennifer Nettles Publishing (ASCAP)

VIDEO OF THE YEAR [Award to Producer(s)/Director(s)/Artist(s)]
- Don't Blink - Kenny Chesney
Producer: Tacklebox Films
Director: Shaun Silva
- Lost In This Moment - Big & Rich
Producer: Big Kenny, Steve Lamar, Marc Oswald
Director: Deaton Flannigan
- Online - Brad Paisley
Producer: Frames Per Second
Director: Jason Alexander
- Stay - Sugarland
Producer: Kristian Bush, Byron Gallimore, Jennifer Nettles
Director: Shaun Silva
- Watching You - Rodney Atkins
Producer: Broken Poet Production
Director: Eric Welch

VOCAL EVENT OF THE YEAR [Award to Artist(s)/Producer(s)/Record Company]
- Because Of You - Reba McEntire Duet With Kelly Clarkson
Produced by Tony Brown, Reba McEntire
MCA Nashville
- Find Out Who Your Friends Are - Tracy Lawrence With Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney
Produced by Julian King, Tracy Lawrence
Rocky Comfort/CO5
- Shiftwork - Kenny Chesney Duet With George Strait
Produced by Buddy Cannon, Kenny Chesney
BNA
- Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore - Bon Jovi Featuring LeAnn Rimes
Produced by Dann Huff
Mecury
- What You Give Away - Vince Gill With Sheryl Crow
Produced by Vince Gill, John Hobbs, Justin Niebank
MCA Nashville

Biggest Debuts: One more factoid on the Kanye/Curtis showdown: as Ned Raggett noted, Kanye beat 50 handily online, selling 133,000 digital copies—a new record—to Curtis' 58,000. (Just Who I Am sold 36,000 e-albums.)

Oh, and in other debuts, get ready for another round of hacky music writers saying that songs by the latest hot-AC-artist-masquerading-as-an-indie-star "belong on Grey's Anatomy"; the third soundtrack to that show debuted at No. 16, selling 27,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: Timbaland (27,000; up 43%) and Rihanna (26,000; up 28%) enjoyed healthy post-Video Music Awards bumps—perhaps because each got the chance to actually perform a full song—but the real story is newly crowned iPod spokeswoman Feist, whose The Reminder saw a whopping 120% sales gain (OK, that only amounts to 14,000 copies, but still) and jumped from No. 95 to No. 44. Meanwhile, "1-2-3-4," the song that's in the sales-goosing Apple ad, had its weekly track sales jump 500%; the song sold 41,000 digital copies this week, putting it at No. 17 on the Hot Digital Tracks chart, right in between Rihanna and Akon. Will this make Universal Music Group a little less hot-under-the-collar at Apple, seeing as how it's doing what rotation on Lite-FMs around the country couldn't?

Dropping Off: Nothing really surprising here—Chiodos, which debuted last week at No. 5, is off 63%, and Every Time I Die, which entered last week at No. 41, is off 62%. But I bet that next week, this category is going to be a doozy!

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Linkin Park's Minutes To Midnight is still bobbing around the top 20, this week selling 30,000 copies and coming in at No. 11. But you know, for all the hanging around it's done—not to mention its big debut week—wouldn't you think it would have sold more than 1.68 million copies by now? (It's about to be lapped by High School Musical 2, in fact.)

The top 20, with estimated sales totals in parentheses:
1. Kanye West, Graduation (957,000)
2. 50 Cent, Curtis (691,000)
3. Kenny Chesney, Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates (387,000)
4. High School Musical 2 soundtrack (133,000)
5. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (42,000)
6. Fergie, The Dutchess (41,000)
7. Nickelback, All The Right Reasons (35,000)
8. Colbie Caillat, Coco (32,000)
9. Now 25 (32,000)
10. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds (31,000)
11. Linkin Park, Minutes To Midnight (30,000)
12. Casting Crowns, The Altar And The Door (29,000)
13. Timbaland, Timbaland Presents Shock Value (27,000)
14. Hairspray soundtrack (27,000)
15. Maroon 5, It Won't Be Soon Before Long (27,000)
16. Grey's Anatomy, Vol. 3 (27,000)
17. Common, Finding Forever (26,000)
18. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (26,000)
19. T.I., T.I. Vs. T.I.P. (26,000)
20. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (25,000)

Kanye: 960k
Fifty: 660k
K. Chesney: 400k

And yes, though I know I shouldn't care about this sort of trivial marketing ploy by two objectionable millionaires who already enjoy fame and financial security beyond my wildest imaginings, especially in face of Iraq/the growing problem of third-world "megaslums"/the housing market imploding/the price of cigarettes in New Jersey, I'm still smiling.

West Is Best [Hits Daily Double]

I'm betting that Chesney will actually come out on top; call it a hunch based in large part on the tendencies of people in decadent media enclaves like my apartment to grossly undercount the purchasing power of people in the rest of the country, and the marked success Chesney's had on country radio. (And I wish that someone out there was tracking multi-album purchases—I'd love to know how many people might buy all three albums.)

Major pop albums square off Tuesday [LAT]
Related: Fresh at 33Jones has a laser-accurate piece on why calling the 50/Kanye showdown "Hip-hop's 9/11" is pretty gauche.

Kenny Chesney descended on New York City last night, filling Madison Square Garden to the brim with cowboy hats, and I got up close to watch the people's country star—although the "sand pit" I was allegedly standing in had no sand. (I guess they figured New Yorkers wouldn't notice.) The timing of last night's show couldn't have been better: The new albums by Kanye West and 50 Cent both leaked, so I got to see how their No. 1 competition for the No. 1 slot on the Sept. 11 charts was rallying his fanbase. The crowd was full of folks with t-shirts bearing slogans like "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave," as well as lots of waving flags—which professed alliegiance to both the U.S.A. and Kenny himself. For his part, he was all about his tight little jeans—I mean, like, lay-on-the-bed-to-zip-up tight. Full of energy and ripping through "Young" and "Live Those Songs" with gusto (and a horn section behind him), he slapped a lot of hands with the crowd. Though he's no Jimmy Buffett (yet), his country-lite tunes seem to have captured the hearts of the tri-state area's Nascar-fan demographic.

To give the show a bit of a New York edge, the end saw Yankees Roger Clemens, Johnny Damon, and Andy Philips prancing around a bit awkwardly and autographing a guitar; Kenny then very sweetly handed it to a young boy in the audience, a preface to the poor kid being pulled on stage. (I thought he might actually wet his pants—but whatever, that guitar should sell well on eBay.) Anyone up for a cheeseburger in paradise? Wait, wrong guy ...

When asked what he thinks about country singer Kenny Chesney's assertion in Entertainment Weekly that his album "Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates" (BNA), also due out Sept. 11, could sneak in and win the week, 50 Cent laughs.

"Who?" he quips. "He's out of his mind."

(A bit of first-week-sales math may be helpful. Though 50 Cent's last album, "The Massacre," sold 1.1 million in its first week and West's "Late Registration" opened with 860,000 copies sold, hip-hop sales have been more severely hurt by piracy and Internet downloading than other genres, especially country, cutting first-week sales for some artists by up to half. Chesney's last album, "The Road and the Radio," opened with 469,000 sales in 2005, meaning major growth in his fan base, which has been packing stadiums to see him all summer long, could make this a horse race.)

At first, Fitty goes for a subtle put-down of Chesney.

"You know how it is in the country," he says. "You don't get a chance to see everything."

OK, 50. Look, I was at the Kanye listening session/monologue on Tuesday, and I heard him talk about how both you and him were letting the press do your dirty work as far as promoting your album, and I know that all this "who?" posturing is merely you trying to assert your dominance amongst the herd. But seriously, do you think it's in keeping with your "I get money" CEO persona to not know all the details about the artist who, let's face it, is a bigger threat to you, chart-wise, than Kanye West? If you were really serious about all this "I'm a businessman" crap, you'd have your opposition research ready to go, complete with PowerPoint slides on why the yard-tall-margarita-swilling hordes will probably be too drunk to even show up at the record stores on Sept. 11.

Can Fitty sell himself? You bet [Newsday]

Elsewhere in the interview, he talks about his freak-out over the leak of his video with Robin Thicke and keeps alive his claim that he's going to be No. 1 on the charts when the Billboard 200 comes out on Sept. 19—despite simultaneously going back on his promise to quit making albums if he doesn't hit the top spot. (Maybe he finally read his e-mail from Kenny Chesney?)

50 Cent Explains Last Week's Blowup, Says 'I Will Be #1 On September 11' [MTV]
50 CENT MTV NEWS INTERVIEW [Dailymotion via Nah Right]

''It's funny how with every record that comes out, we're aware of the urban [competition], and none of those acts acknowledge that I exist,'' Chesney tells EW via email. ''Until I have that No. 1 debut on the Top 200.''

Oh boy. Well, Chesney's last studio album, The Road And The Radio, did, in fact, enter the charts at the top slot when it was released back in November 2005. And if he keeps slinging those yard-tall margaritas, who knows what havoc will ensue at the nation's Targets and Best Buys when that week finally rolls around.

Kenny Chesney vs. Kanye and Fitty [EW]