Keith Urban Crowned Artist of the Year in 2016 Golden Boot Awards
The Boot's readers have spoken: Keith Urban is the 2016 Golden Boot Awards Artist of the Year. The country star has spent the past year readying a new project, Ripcord, and with the ambitious album out now, Urban's career trajectory will likely only continue to rise even higher.
Following Ripcord's release on May 6, the project debuted at No. 1 in the U.S., Canada and Australia. It was Urban's second album to top the charts in those three countries during its debut week — and that’s something that no other male country artist has ever done. The disc was also Urban's fifth career No. 1 album.
Singles from Ripcord have been propelling Urban's star higher throughout the past year as well: The artist has celebrated two No. 1 songs — the 19th and 20th of his career, respectively — with his first two singles from the project, “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” and “Break on Me.” Urban’s newest single, “Wasted Time,” meanwhile, has given him his 36th consecutive Top 10 song. The singer holds the record for the most consecutive Top 10 songs on the Billboard Country Airplay chart; his streak began in August of 2000.
“The 15 months that I spent recording Ripcord was one of the most incredible musical journeys I’ve ever had,” Urban says. “Working with some of the most creative and inspiring musicians to explore and expand my music in the studio was exhilarating. To now see this music connecting with my audience in this way is an extraordinary feeling — it means everything to me.”
On June 2, Urban began his Ripcord World Tour, with Brett Eldredge and Maren Morris as he special guests. He recently added Canadian dates to the trek and will also be hitting up Australia at the end of the year.
With a whopping 78 percent of votes, Urban defeated Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton and Chris Stapleton to win Artist of the Year.
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