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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, eight Billboard Music Awards,
and two Grammy Awards (including Best New Artist). Her
critically acclaimed CD has sold the most out of any
debuts by an American Idol winner.
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".
Early years: 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 and
Stephanie Underwood Shelton, born in 1973 and 1970
respectively, both elementary school teachers in
Oklahoma.
Underwood had performed at Robbins
Memorial Talent Show in her childhood. She's 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: In the summer of 2004, Underwood
auditioned for American Idol in St. Louis. When her
initial audition aired in January 2005, many people
predicted she would win the competition. On March 22,
2005, Underwood sang a powerful rendition of the number
one 80's rock hit Alone by Heart and the notoriously
hard-to-please judge Simon Cowell predicted that
Underwood would win the competition and 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
American Idol (Season 4) beating out Bo Bice.
Underwood appeared on American Idol (season 6). She sang
her current hit, "Wasted" on March 8th. 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, only to
receive a standing ovation.
2005-present: Some Hearts: Underwood's debut
album, entitled Some Hearts, hit 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".
"Some Hearts" was also released to Pop, Adult
Contemporary and Hot Adult Contemporary stations in
October 2005 and peaked in the top 30 on the Pop and Hot
AC formats, 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,
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.
On May 23, 2006, Underwood sang "Jesus, Take the
Wheel" receiving a standing ovation at the ACM
Awards and ended up winning Best New Female Vocalist and
Single of the year for the song. Also she was nominated
for Song of the Year and Female Vocalist of the year.
Later that fall Underwood's third country single, Before
He Cheats, hit number one on Billboard's Hot Country
Songs, 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, making it
become the slowest song to ever reach the top 10 of the
Billboard Hot 100, breaking the record that was
previously held by Creed in July 2000
Underwood performed "Before He Cheats", 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 beating out the Pussycat Dolls and Chamillionaire.
She was also nominated for Best Female Country Artist,
but did not win in that category.
Underwood 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 continues her successful trend of top 2
Country singles with the release of "Wasted".
The song has peaked at number 1 on the Hot Country Songs
Chart, and number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100. The video
that goes along with "Wasted" debuted at
number 2 on the GACTV Top 20 Countdown, it is likely
that if "Before He Cheats" did not split
votes, the video would have debuted at number one.
On March 3, 2007, Underwood was nominated for 5 Academy
of Country Music awards. She is nominated for Best
Female Vocalist, Song of the Year "Before He
Cheats", Video of the Year "Before He
Cheats", Album of the Year "Some Hearts",
and Single Record of the Year "Before He
Cheats". Kellie Pickler, also from American Idol
has been nominated for Best New Female Vocalist, the
award which Underwood won last year. She was also on
Blender.com's list of the hottest women in music.
On April 11, 2007, Underwood's newest single,
"Wasted" reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot
Country Songs.
On April 16, 2007, Underwood attended the CMT Awards in
Nashville, TN, where she 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 ended up winning all three categories
and sang her most successful single to date,
"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.
"I'll Stand By You" was used as the song for
Phil Stacey's elimination on May 2, 2007.
Underwood appears on Brad Paisley's upcoming album, 5th
Gear, on a song entitled "Oh Love".
2007 Grammy Awards: On December 7, 2006,
Underwood's album "Some Hearts" received 4
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",
help bringing the show's highest ratings in the last 10
months. She became only the tenth country music star to
perform on the show (preceded by Garth Brooks, Randy
Travis, Dolly Parton, 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).
On June 21, 2007, Carrie is a headliner at Country USA,
in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Personal interests: 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 was expressed
on Idol, 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" alongside Coldplay frontman Chris
Martin in 2005 by animal-rights organization PETA.
Underwood is a supporter of the Humane Society 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 magazine.
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 Carrie 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 this year's list of the Most Beautiful People by
People Magazine. She will be featured in the magazine's
upcoming issue.
Personal life: Underwood performed at halftime of
the Thanksgiving Day football game at 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. |
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