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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Keith Urban: Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Him

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Keith Urban shoots the video for his single, "Sweet Thing" in December 2008 in a barn in Spring Hill, Tenn. Photo by Jeff Johnson, courtesy of Borman Entertainment.

March 17, 2009 — Keith Urban gave a short, four-song performance in the lobby at BMI on Nashville's Music Row Monday as the performing rights organization celebrated a wealth of accomplishments: a No. 1 single for "Sweet Thing"; 12 million albums sold; and 11 different songs that have been credited with 1-3 million plays apiece on American radio stations.
For one song to play a million times, it's the equivalent of having the single played back-to-back consecutively for six years solid on one station. No commercial breaks. His airplay honors recognize a total of 16 million performances, which means a lot of Keith Urban gets played on radio stations in the U.S.
Keith and his co-writer, Monty Powell, each picked up trophies to honor their chart-topping achievement with "Sweet Thing, " and Keith had some extra awards made specifically for his engineers and for the musicians that played on the single. Keith, dressed in a brown short-sleeved shirt and black corduroys, apologized for his speech-making abilities, then gave what proved a rather thoughtful recognition of the people who helped him on the way up — particularly songwriters and managers. The audience included fellow artist Radney Foster and wife Nicole Kidman, to whom Keith gave a particular thanks.
He acknowledged "shuffling this scheduling thing around to make sure we're both in town at the same time. It's awesome that you're here. You're my muse and my everything, and I know that I wouldn't be up here tonight, particularly for 'Sweet Thing,' being back in this place without you, so I appreciate it. I love you so much."
"Sweet Thing" was naturally part of Keith's mini-concert, which also included another gesture of affection to Nicole when he hit the first chorus of "Somebody Like You." Rather poetically, "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me" noticeably had one audience member singing word-for-word with every lyric. It wasn't just some anonymous fan; it was Monty Powell, who co-wrote it.
The appearance comes as the release of Keith's next album, Defying Gravity, is slated for March 31. Keith is also GAC's March Fan Focus artist -- click here=2 0to see a GAC-customized video of "Sweet Thing!"
Keith's Millionaire Awards came for:
• "Better Life" (1 million performances)
• "I Told You So" (1 million)
• "It's A Love Thing" (1 million)
• "You're My Better Half" (1 million)
• "Tonight I Wanna Cry" (1 million)
• "Once In A Lifetime" (1 million)
• "Everybody" (1 million)
• "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me" (2 million)
• "But For The Grace Of God" (2 million)
• "Days Go By" (2 million)
• "Somebody Like You" (3 million)

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