Taylor Swift Gives Props to Fellow Entertainers

When her name was announced as Entertainer of the Year at Sunday night's Academy of Country Music Awards, Taylor Swift was visibly emotional, turning to hug her mother, Andrea, before stopping to hug some of her friends and fellow nominees Brad Paisley and Miranda Lambert.

The word 'entertainer' encompasses quite a few elements, including stage performance, overall appeal and helping to bring more fans to country music. How does the winner of this year's award define the title? "The impact and significance of winning Entertainer of the Year is just the biggest thing in the world to me, because my heroes won that award," Taylor tells The Boot backstage at the ACM Awards. "To have such amazing artists take me under their wing like Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban -- these are all people I've opened up for, and George Strait. Then you look back to Shania Twain and Garth Brooks, people who I'm absolutely in awe of, and I see those people when I think of 'entertainer.' So, just the fact that I would even be mentioned in the same breath with that word is really mind-blowing to me."

After Taylor's name was called as the winner, her mother seemed to be giving her daughter some words of wisdom. Come to find out, that wasn't really the case. "Those aren't actual words," Taylor said with a laugh. "That's just screaming ... random consonants and vowels. That's not ever actually audible thoughts."

Being a fan-voted award, the Entertainer of the Year win made it all the more sweeter for the 21-year-old superstar. "Shock [is what I felt] and just overwhelming gratitude, because the fans are the ones who did that," says Taylor. "And I feel like out of all of the things that have happened to me in my life, they're the best thing that I've ever gotten to have. My relationship with them is everything to me, and the fact that this was the by product of that, it makes it that much more beautiful."

While she thanked her fans on stage and backstage at Sunday night's show, Taylor also filmed a video and posted it on her website, in which the songstress thanks them once again. "I thank you for this and for how fun you've made my life."

Taylor resumes her Speak Now World tour with a two-night stand in Omaha, Neb., on May 27. Click here for more information on Taylor's tour dates.