Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She rose to fame as the winner of the fourth seasonof American Idol, in 2005. Her debut album, Some Hearts, was released in 2005. Bolstered by the huge crossoversuccess of the singles "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and "Before He Cheats", it became the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, the fastest-selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history and the best-selling country album of the last 14 years. Underwood won three Grammy Awards for the album, including Best New Artist. Her second album Carnival Ride followed in 2007. It had one of the biggest ever opening weeks by a female artist and earned Underwood two Grammy Awards. Her next album, 2009's Play On, was a commercial success led by the single "Cowboy Casanova". Underwood's fourth album, Blown Away(2012), earned her a Grammy Award and was that year's second best-selling release by a female artist. Her first compilation album (2014) was a chart and sales success and earned her a Grammy Award. Her fifth album, Storyteller (2015), made her the only country artist to have all first five studio albums reach either numbers one or two on the Billboard 200.
One of the most successful artists in any musical genre, Underwood has sold more than 65 million records worldwide. Recognized by Billboard as Country Music's reigning Queen and by Rolling Stone as "the female vocalist of her generation of any genre", she was listed by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. Underwood is the top country artist of all-time on the RIAA's Digital Singles ranking and the highest certified country album artist to debut in the 21st century. She is the only solo country artist in the 2000s to have a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, the only country artist to debut at number one on the Hot 100, and the woman with most number-one hits in the history of the BillboardCountry Airplay chart, with fifteen. She is the most successful American Idol winner, per Forbes. Billboard named Some Hearts the number-one country album of the 2000s and her as top female artist on their 'Best Country Artists of the 2000s' list. She has been inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grand Ole Opry, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. She has received numerous awards and accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, 10 Billboard Music Awards, 14 ACM Awards, 12 American Music Awards, 8 CMA Awards, and a Guinness World Record. Underwood was born March 10, 1983, in Muskogee, Oklahoma,[3] to Carole (Shatswell) and Steve Underwood, She has two older sisters, Shanna and Stephanie,[5] and was raised on her parents' farm in the nearby rural town of Checotah.[6] Her father worked in a paper mill while her mother taught elementary school.[7] Extremely hyperactive, she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at age five and was prescribed Ritalin and Dexedrine, medicines she still takes as an adult.[8] During her childhood, Underwood performed at Robbins Memorial Talent Show, and sang at her local church, First Free Will Baptist Church. She later sang for local events in Checotah, including Old Settler's Day and the Lion's Club.
A local admirer arranged for her to go to Nashville when she was 14 to audition for Capitol Records.[10] In 1996, Capitol Records was preparing a contract for Underwood but canceled it when company management changed. Underwood said of the event, "I honestly think it's a lot better that nothing came out of it now, because I wouldn't have been ready then. Everything has a way of working out."[11] While at Checotah High School, she was an Honor Society member, a cheerleader, and played basketball and softball.[12] Underwood graduated from Checotah High School in 2001 as salutatorian.[9] She chose not to pursue singing after graduation. She said, "After high school, I pretty much gave up on the dream of singing. I had reached a point in my life where I had to be practical and prepare for my future in the 'real world'".[12] She attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, graduating magna cum laude in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in mass communication and an emphasis in journalism. She spent part of one of her summers as a page for Oklahoma State Representative Bobby Frame. She also waited tables at a pizzeria, worked at a zoo, and at a veterinary clinic. Underwood is an alumna of the Alpha Iota chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority.
For two years during the summer, she performed in Northeastern State University's Downtown Country show in Tahlequah. She competed in numerous beauty pageants at the university and was selected as Miss NSU runner-up in 2004.
Career
American Idol 2005
In the summer of 2004, Underwood auditioned for American Idol in St. Louis, Missouri, singing Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me". After she sang "Could've Been" by Tiffany on the top 12 girls night, judge Simon Cowellcommented that she would be one of the favorites to win the competition.[17][18] During the top 11 finalists' performance on the March 22, 2005, Idol episode, Underwood sang a rendition of the number-one 1980s rock hit "Alone", made famous by Heart, and Cowell predicted that Underwood would not only win the competition, but she would also outsell all previous Idolwinners.[19] One of the show's producers later said she dominated the voting, winning every week handily.[20][21] She gained a fan base known as "Carrie's Care Bears" during the course of the show. During the final, she sang with Rascal Flatts on "Bless the Broken Road."[22] On May 25, 2005, Underwood became the season four winner. Her winnings included a recording contract worth at least a million dollars, use of a private jet for a year, and a Ford Mustang convertible.[23]
Some Hearts: Debut Album
Some Hearts is Underwood's debut studio album, released in the United States on November 15, 2005 by Arista Nashville. The album contains the number one singles "Jesus, Take the Wheel", "Don't Forget to Remember Me", "Wasted", and "Before He Cheats". The North American version contains the Billboard Hot 100 number one single, "Inside Your Heaven," as a bonus track. Bolstered by the success of its singles, Some Hearts became the best-selling album of 2006 in all genres in the United States. The album was also the best-selling country album in the United States of both 2006 and 2007, making Underwood the first female artist in Billboard history to earn back-to-back honors for Top Country Album. Additionally, it was the best-selling female country album of 2005, 2006 and 2007. Some Hearts has since been certified 8x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and is the fastest-selling debut country album in the history of the Nielsen SoundScan era, the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, the best-selling country album of the last 10 years, and the best-selling album by an American Idol alumni in the U.S.
It was listed as one of the 100 best-selling albums of all time by the RIAA in 2009. Some Hearts has since sold over 7.45 million copies in the U.S. and over nine million worldwide. In December 2009, Billboard announced that the album was the biggest-selling country album of the decade, as well as the fourteenth biggest-selling album of any genre.
The album and its songs were praised by music critics. It led Underwood to win three Grammy Awards: Best New Artist in 2007 and twice Best Female Country Vocal Performance — for "Jesus, Take the Wheel", in 2007, and for "Before He Cheats", in 2008. Additionally, Some Hearts won Album of the Year at the 2007 Academy of Country Music Awards, while "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and "Before He Cheats" both won Single of the Year at the 2006 Academy of Country Music Awards and 2007 Country Music Association Awards, respectively.
Underwood scored three No. 1 songs on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart: "Jesus, Take the Wheel", "Before He Cheats", and "Wasted", as well as the No. 2 hit, "Don't Forget to Remember Me." Her debut single released after American Idol, "Inside Your Heaven", went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart, giving Underwood a total of four No. 1 hits from her first album.
On October 23, 2007, Underwood released her sophomore album, Carnival Ride, which was preceded by the album's first No. 1 hit, "So Small", a song Underwood co-wrote. Throughout 2008 she scored three more No. 1 hits from the album: "All-American Girl", "Last Name", and "Just a Dream", giving Underwood a total of four consecutive number one songs from her second album and seven overall number ones on the country charts. Carnival Ride's final single, "I Told You So", was released in 2009 as both a single version of Underwood and a duet version with the song's original hitmaker, Randy Travis. The duet version of the single was a big hit, reaching No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs and No. 9 on the Hot 100 chart. She promoted the album with the headlining Carnival Ride Tour in 2008, her first headlining tour across the U.S. and Canada.
Underwood returned in September 2009 with the release of "Cowboy Casanova", the leadoff single from her third album, Play On. Her third album generated three No. 1 hits: "Cowboy Casanova", "Temporary Home", and "Undo It", as well as the No. 2 hit, "Mama's Song", all of which were co-written by Underwood. During this time she won Entertainer of the Year at the ACM awards, making Underwood the first female artist in history to win that award twice. In July 2010, she married her husband Mike Fisher while taking a break from her headlining Play On Tour, which wrapped up in December 2010.
By this point in her career, Underwood was now one of the most successful female country artists in history, for several reasons. In five years she had won five Grammy awards and scored over ten number one singles; she was now a member of the Grand Ole Opry, having been inducted in May 2008; and she was now co-hosting the CMA Awards alongside Brad Paisley every year, a tradition that has continued for ten consecutive years.
In 2011 she took something of a break to work on her fourth album, only releasing one single, a duet with Paisley called "Remind Me", which went to No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs and sold over 1 million copies.
On May 1, 2012 she released her fourth album, Blown Away. The album generated two No. 1 hits, "Good Girl" and the title track, "Blown Away", and two songs that peaked at No. 2 on the Country Airplay chart: "Two Black Cadillacs" and "See You Again." Underwood scored her sixth Grammy award for the album's second single, "Blown Away", and the music videos for each single earned her several CMT Music awards. The Blown Away Tour, which played in cities across the U.S., Canada, and England, sold over 1 million in tickets through 2012 and 2013. Underwood took on the role of Maria Von Trapp for NBC's The Sound of Music Live holiday special in December 2013, which drew more than 18 million viewers. A few months later, in early 2014, she was included on Time's annual 100 Most Influential list. In September Underwood announced her first pregnancy, accompanied by the release of a new single, "Something in the Water." She scored another No. 1 hit and another Grammy award for the song, also including it on her first ever Greatest Hits collection, which was released in December 2014. Underwood gave birth to her son, Isaiah, in February the following year and took only a few months off during the first half of 2015. In August she returned with the lead single - "Smoke Break" - from her fifth album, Storyteller. The following two singles, "Heartbeat" and "Church Bells", both went to No. 1 on Billboard's country chart and the final single, "Dirty Laundry", reached No. 2. The Storyteller Tour: Stories in the Round became not only Underwood's biggest tour to date, but one of the biggest tours of any genre of 2016. Underwood scored another win as the CMA's Female Vocalist of the Year for her work on the album, also being the only female artist nominated for Entertainer of the Year in November. Following a round of touring in Australia and New Zealand with Keith Urban, she released a duet with him, "The Fighter", which went to No. 2 on the charts and sold over one million copies, also eventually earning the pair an ACM award. 2017 was somewhat of a quiet year for the singer, who focused on promoting her fitness line, Calia by Carrie Underwood. In November she co-hosted the CMA Awards for the tenth year in a row with Brad Paisley, also performing the hymn "Softly and Tenderly."
Mere days after the CMA Awards, Underwood suffered a hard fall at home that resulted in a broken wrist and a facial injury that required several stitches. Following a statement released in December, Underwood did not reveal the extent of her injuries until after the holidays, and did not make any public appearances during the first two months of 2018. However, she returned to radio with the release of "Cry Pretty", the lead single from her sixth album, and revealed she would be releasing the album in September 2018. Underwood performed the lead single at the ACM awards in April, marking her first public appearance since the accident. She also returned to an episode of American Idol, mentoring the season's new contestants as they chose songs from her own discography.