Sweet Triumph For Dixie Chicks at Grammy Awards 2007

The Dixie Chicks, whose career was almost killed by Clear Channel, a radio station network with strong Republican ties, when they dared to criticize President Bush in the spring of 2003, won all five Grammys for which they were nominated on Sunday, including the coveted album of the year.

When Singer Natalie Maines told fans during a 2003 concert she was ashamed to come from the same state as Bush, the group was transformed overnight into pariahs as radio stations stopped playing their songs, album and ticket sales suffered and the group plummeted in charts literally overnight.

The Dixie Chicks also won record and song of the year for the appropriately titled single "Not Ready To Make Nice." The last time an act won the album, record and song categories was in 1993 when Eric Clapton led the field. The last country act to win album of the year was Glen Campbell in 1969 with "By the Time I Get to Phoenix."

The Dixie Chicks also won the Grammys for best country album and country performance by a duo or group with vocal. Their career Grammy haul now stands at 13 awards. "Taking the Long Way" was the ninth-biggest album in the US last year, but sales of 1.9 million copies to date were relatively disappointing compared with previous releases.



Former "American Idol" champion Carrie Underwood took the closely watched honor for best new artist, while other winners included soul-pop duo Gnarls Barkley, rock crooner John Mayer, veteran balladeer Tony Bennett, rock superstar Bruce Springsteen, rapper Ludacris and many other.


As he accepted the best rap album Grammy for "Release Therapy," the Atlanta hip-hop star offered a "special shout-out to Bill O'Reilly. I love you!" O'Reilly, a notorious conservative talk show host on Fox News, helped cost Ludacris a lucrative sponsorship deal with Pepsi in 2002 after he pointed to the rapper's explicit lyrics.

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