Backstage Country

LISTEN LIVE

Keith Urban: Barbara Mandrell Is ‘All The Things You’d Want In An Entertainer’

Keith Urban is the current Entertainer of the Year for both the CMAs and the ACMs, but he’s quick to cite other great country music entertainers who came before him….

Keith Urban's Favorite Entertainer: Barbara Mandrell

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – APRIL 07: Entertainer of the Year award winner Keith Urban poses in the press room during the 54th Academy Of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 07, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada; NASHVILLE, TN – NOVEMBER 11: Entertainer Barbara Mandrel attends the 43rd Annual CMA Awards at the Sommet Center on November 11, 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Ethan Miller, Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

Keith Urban is the current Entertainer of the Year for both the CMAs and the ACMs, but he's quick to cite other great country music entertainers who came before him.

While discussing his new song "We Were," Keith referenced one of his favorite entertainers.

"Barbara Mandrell would be the first one I would think of as far as just an all-around performer. You know, playing a hundred instruments and much like Dolly Parton is gifted in so many ways to be a performer. She's charismatic and funny and insightful, a great singer and engaging and personable. All the things you'd want in an Entertainer. Somebody who really cares about the audience. So she'd probably be the first one I would think of."

Barbara Mandrell had a variety show on NBC in the early 1980's, and was a constant presence on the country music charts.  She was made a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009. She's also in the Musicans Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Barbara in 2016 on winning "Entertainer of the Year" twice in a row:

She's has been "very retired" in the last twenty years. However, after a family member told her of Urban's adoration of her, she responded that her "heart was full."

-Nancy Brooks

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.