Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood

Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American pop country music singer who won the fourth season of American Idol. She has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist. Her debut album, Some Hearts, was certified 6x platinum and is the fastest selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history. Underwood is the first American Idol winner to sweep up honors at all three major music awards in the same awards show season (06-07), including one American Music Award, five Billboard Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards (including Best New Artist). Her critically acclaimed debut album is the best selling album of any American Idol contestant in the U.S. to date.

Her album, Some Hearts, has yielded five number one hits to date on various charts in the United States and Canada, including "Inside Your Heaven", "Jesus, Take the Wheel", and "Before He Cheats". Her second album, Carnival Ride, has already produced a top 10 hit, "So Small".

Biography

Early years

Carrie Underwood was born at Muskogee Regional Medical Center, and grew up on her parents' farm in rural Checotah, Oklahoma. She is the third and youngest daughter of Stephen and Carole Underwood (retired schoolteacher of Checotah Public Schools). She has two older sisters, Shanna Underwood Means born in 1970 and Stephanie Underwood Shelton born in 1973, respectively, both elementary school teachers in Oklahoma. Underwood had performed at Robbins Memorial Talent Show in her childhood. She is a member of Free Will Baptist Church. As a young child, she sang in church, and for Old Settler's Day and Lion's Club, local events in Checotah. At the age of 13 in 1996, her manager at the time tried to get her a recording contract at Capitol Records. However, due to management changes at Capitol, it never materialized.

Underwood graduated from Checotah High School in 2001 as salutatorian. After high school, she moved on to Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in mass communication and an emphasis in journalism. Underwood is a member of the Alpha Iota chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, and a tribal member of Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma. For two years during the summer, she performed in Northeastern's Downtown Country show in Tahlequah. She also competed in numerous beauty pageants at the university and was selected as Miss NSU runner-up in 2004.

She currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee.

American Idol

Main article: American Idol (Season 4)

In the summer of 2004, Underwood auditioned for American Idol in St. Louis. On March 22, 2005, Underwood sang a powerful rendition of the number one 80's rock hit "Alone" by Heart and judge Simon Cowell predicted that Underwood would not only win the competition, but would outsell all previous Idol winners. Underwood was the second winner never to have been voted in the bottom three. While on the show, Underwood gained a loyal fan base known as "Carrie's Care Bears." Interestingly, she is in the same sorority (Sigma Sigma Sigma) as Linda Denham, the creator of the original Care Bears franchise.

On May 25, 2005, Underwood was crowned the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, beating out Bo Bice.

Underwood appeared on the sixth season of American Idol, where she sang her single "Wasted" on March 8. This was her fourth time performing on the show since winning the competition in 2005. Also, Underwood performed at the Idol Gives Back concert singing her new song, "I'll Stand By You", (a cover of the Pretenders hit) along with Kelly Clarkson, Rascal Flatts, and others. Underwood sang the same song at American Idol's season finale on May 23, 2007, receiving a standing ovation.

American Idol songs

Week	Song	Original Artist
Semi-Finals 1	"Could've Been"	Tiffany
Semi-Finals 2	"Piece of My Heart"	Janis Joplin, Faith Hill
Semi-Finals 3	"Because You Love Me"	Jo Dee Messina
Top 12	"When Will I Be Loved"	Linda Ronstadt
Top 11	"Alone"	Heart
Top 10	"Independence Day"	Martina McBride
Top 9	"Hello Young Lovers"	Deborah Kerr
Top 8	"Love Is a Battlefield"	Pat Benatar
Top 7	"MacArthur Park"	Donna Summer
Top 6	"When God-Fearin' Women Get The Blues"	Martina McBride
Top 5	"Trouble" "Bless the Broken Road"	Elvis Presley Rascal Flatts
Top 4	"If You Don't Know Me By Now" "Sin Wagon"	Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes Dixie Chicks
Top 3	"Crying" "Man! I Feel like a Woman!" "Making Love out of Nothing at All"	Roy Orbison Shania Twain Air Supply
Top 2	"Inside Your Heaven" "Independence Day" "Angels Brought Me Here"	Carrie Underwood/Bo Bice Martina McBride Guy Sebastian
"'Finale"'	"Inside Your Heaven"	Carrie Underwood/Bo Bice

2005-2007: Some Hearts

Underwood's debut album, entitled Some Hearts, was released to store shelves on November 15, 2005, entering the Billboard 200 chart with 315,000 copies sold. The large first week sales of Some Hearts made it #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and the biggest debut of any country artist since the advent of the SoundScan system in 1991. Some Hearts has since been certified sextuple Platinum by the RIAA, and is the fastest-selling debut country album in the history of the SoundScan era.

The album's second single, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" was released to radio on October 18, 2005. It received so much airplay that it debuted at #39 on the Billboard Country Chart in its first week, setting a record. It eventually reached #1 for 6 consecutive weeks, and was only two weeks shy of Connie Smith's record of an 8-week run back in 1964-1965 with her #1 hit "Once a Day".

Her third single, "Some Hearts" was only released to Pop, Adult Contemporary and Hot Adult Contemporary stations in October 2005 and peaked in the top 25 on the Hot AC format, while it made the top 15 on the AC Charts. "Don't Forget to Remember Me", the second of Underwood's singles to be released to country radio, her fourth single overall, peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Chart, as well as #49 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it did reach #1 for a week on the Radio & Records Country Singles Chart.

Both "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and "Don't Forget to Remember Me" have earned number one spots in Christian radio countdowns. "Jesus, Take the Wheel" won the Gospel Music Association's award for best country single of the year.

Underwood performed "Jesus, Take the Wheel", on May 23, 2006, and received a standing ovation at the ACM Awards. She ended up winning Best New Female Vocalist and Single of the year for the song. She was also nominated for Song of the Year and Female Vocalist of the year, but did not win.

Later that autumn, Underwood's third country single, "Before He Cheats", hit number one on Billboard's Hot Country Songs, staying there for 5 consecutive weeks, marking Underwood's third country number one hit and her fourth number one hit all together. The song peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, achieving the slowest climb ever to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, breaking the record that was previously held by Creed from July 2000. After a year of release, the single still remains in the Billboard charts.

To promote "Before He Cheats", Underwood performed it at the 40th Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 6, 2006, and later won both the Horizon Award (similar to the "Rookie of the Year" award in sports) for new country artists and Female Vocalist. Underwood's double win is the first time since 1995 that an artist won both the female vocalist and Horizon award.

On November 21, 2006, Underwood went into the American Music Awards with 2 nominations, that night she left the building winning the Breakthrough Artist of the Year award. She was also nominated for Best Female Country Artist, but did not win in that category. She also attended the "2006 Billboard Music Awards" On December 4, 2006, and took home 5 awards. She won the coveted Album of the Year, Top 200 Female Artist of the Year, Female Country Artist, New Country Artist, and Country Album of the Year.

Underwood was nominated for 5 Academy of Country Music awards in 2007. She was nominated for Best Female Vocalist, Song of the Year, Video of the Year, Album of the Year and Single Record of the Year. She won two of her nominated catergories; Album of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year.

On April 11, 2007, Underwood continued her success of top 2 Country singles with the release of "Wasted". The song peaked at number 1 on the Hot Country Songs Chart, and number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for Wasted debuted at number 2 on the GACTV Top 20 Countdown.

At the 2007 CMT Awards in Nashville, Tennessee on April 16, Underwood was nominated for three awards, including Video of the Year, Female Video of the Year, and Video Director of the Year, all for "Before He Cheats." She won in all of the three categories. She also performed there, singing "Before He Cheats".

In early April, Underwood took a break from working on her second album to take a trip to South Africa for American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" charity special. A music video package from her trip aired on the show April 25. Underwood recorded an acoustic version of The Pretenders' classic "I'll Stand By You," which served as the music bed for this American Idol video package. The charity single of the song released exclusively on iTunes reached the #2 spot.

Underwood also appeared in Brad Paisley's latest album, 5th Gear, on a song entitled "Oh Love". Aside from those activities, she also performed "Before He Cheats" and "Wasted" at the CMA Music Festival.

2007 Grammy Awards

On December 7, 2006, Underwood's album Some Hearts received four Grammy nominations. Underwood received two Grammy awards for "Best New Artist", and "Best Female Country Vocal Performance" while "Jesus, Take the Wheel" received nominations for "Best Country Song" and "Song of the Year".

Underwood's nomination marked the first time that an American Idol winner or contestant had been nominated in the "Best New Artist" category. The award ceremony was held on February 11, 2007 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. She also sang alongside Grammy nominees Rascal Flatts. On March 24, 2007, Underwood was featured as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live with host Peyton Manning. Underwood performed her hit singles "Before He Cheats" and "Wasted", helping bring the show's highest ratings in the last 10 months. She became only the eleventh country music star to perform on the show (preceded by Garth Brooks, Randy Travis, Dolly Parton, Dwight Yoakam, Faith Hill, The Charlie Daniels Band, Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Keith Urban). She is the third American Idol contestant to appear on the show (preceded by Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson).

2007-present: Carnival Ride

Underwood's second album, Carnival Ride, will be released on October 23, 2007. "So Small", the first single from the album, was released on July 31. On Carnival Ride, Underwood was more involved in the songwriting process than on the debut. She set up a writers retreat at Nashville's famed Ryman Auditorium to collaborate with such Music Row tunesmiths as Hillary Lindsey, Craig Wiseman, Rivers Rutherford and Gordie Sampson.

Personal interests

Underwood receiving a gift from the 25th Infantry Division (Task Force Lightning) after performing in Tikrit, Iraq in December of 2006.

At her American Idol audition, Underwood revealed to the judges that her favorite singer is contemporary country recording artist Martina McBride. Throughout her time on American Idol, home videos were shown in which she sang "Independence Day", one of Martina's best known songs. Underwood also released her version of "Independence Day" as the B-side to her first #1 single, "Inside Your Heaven".

In addition to being a singer, Underwood is also a skilled guitar player, and has accompanied herself on guitar during performances of certain songs like "Don't Forget to Remember Me" and "Inside Your Heaven" during some of her live concerts, as well as on the albums.

Another feature of Underwood's interests expressed on Idol is her love for animals. Underwood is a vegetarian and stopped consuming beef at the age of 13 as she couldn't stand the thought of eating one of her own animals. She was voted "World's Sexiest Vegetarian" by animal-rights organization PETA in 2007 for the second time, the first being in 2005 alongside Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

Underwood is a supporter of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and has done several public service announcements for the organization.

A native of eastern Oklahoma, she co-wrote a song dedicated to her hometown, "I Ain't in Checotah Anymore". In December 2005, Underwood was named Oklahoman of the Year by Oklahoma Today.

Underwood performed with the USO Christmas Tour in Iraq during the 2006 Holiday season, to spread holiday cheer to the troops overseas. She follows a celebrity entertainment tradition started by Bob Hope that continues to this day. Several internet sites have photos and video clips of Underwood's performances in Iraq, including photos of Underwood in military garb.

Victoria's Secret recently named Underwood the "Sexiest Female Musician". She took the top honors along with Justin Timberlake, who was named the "Sexiest Male Musician". She was also placed on the 2007 list of the "Most Beautiful People" by People. She will be featured in the magazine's upcoming issue. Most recently, Underwood was honored as one of three of the most influential entertainers in America at this point in time and was named sexiest female country artist by Country Weekly.

Recently, Underwood filmed a video for the Disney Movie, Enchanted, due to hit theaters this November. Underwood performed an original song for the movie called Ever After, which will appear on the soundtrack for the movie.

Personal life

Underwood performed at halftime of the Thanksgiving Day football game at the Texas Stadium and has been connected socially with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, attending his birthday party in April of 2007. On May 15, 2007 Romo escorted Underwood to the Academy of Country Music Awards.

Discography

For singles and albums, see Carrie Underwood discography

Awards

Further information: List of Carrie Underwood awards

References

• Tracey, Kathleen. Carrie Underwood: American Idol IV. September 2005. Blue Banner Biography series (Juvenile) ISBN 1-58415-425-X

External links

• Arista Records Official site of Carrie Underwood from Arista Records
• Carrie Underwood music, videos, news and more at CMT.com
• Arista Nashville Resumé of Carrie Underwood's autobiography, accomplishments, and personal interests
• 19 Entertainment Brief biography of Carrie Underwood
• Official Carrie Underwood Myspace
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• Carrie Underwood at IMDb
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• Carrie Underwood at People.com
• A&R for Carrie Underwood on World Top 100 A&R Chart

• News items and editorial about Carrie Underwood at Country Standard Time
• Carrie Underwood Exclusive Performance & Behind the Scenes Footage on AOL Sessions

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