Taylor Swift fans reward her with top music prize

TAYLOR SWIFT might not be able to count on the men in her life, but her fans have yet to let her down.

And they have rewarded her with one of the biggest prizes in country music — The Academy of Country Music’s entertainer of the year award.

A record of nearly 600,000 voters participated in selecting this year’s winner of the academy’s most prestigious award, the only major award determined by fans. Swift’s crew came through for her on a night when the industry and her peers rewarded firecracker Miranda Lambert with four trophies.

“I feel like of all that has happened to me in my life, that’s the best thing I’ve ever gotten to have,” the 21-year-old Swift said after the show. “My relationship with them is everything to me.”

Swift, known for detailing her broken romances and the men who have wronged her, credited a quartet of men who have done her right.

She thanked Brad Paisley and Keith Urban along with four-time winner Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw for taking her on the road before she became an international sensation and showed her how to do it.

“I see those people when I think of entertainers,” Swift said.

Lambert, also an entertainer nominee, had few expectations after topping the ACMs with three wins last year on the strength of her aptly titled album Revolution and the song White Liar. She had no idea she would top all nominees with seven this year.

“I just expected to come to the ACMs in 2011 and chill,” she said.

It turned out that her poignant song The House That Built Me would be an even bigger hit than White Liar, though, winning three gongs.