| For The Record... |
| Born Carrie Marie Underwood on March 10, 1983, in Muskogee, OK; daughter of Stephen (an electronic technician) and Carole (a teacher) Underwood. Education: Northeastern State University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 2006. Won American Idol television talent contest, May 2005; signed to Arista Nashville label; released first single, "Inside Your Heaven," June 2005; debut LP, Some Hearts, 2005. Awards: Gospel Music Association Award for best country recorded song of the year, 2006, for "Jesus, Take the Wheel"; Country Music Association, Horizon Award for best new country artist of the year and female vocalist of the year, 2006; American Music Awards, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, 2006; National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Grammy Award for Best New Artist of the year, 2007. Addresses: Record company—Arista Records Nashville, 1400 18th Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37212. |
Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Carrie Underwood became the first country music performer to win American Idol, the top-rated television talent contest that seeks out new, undiscovered talent. Underwood was a favorite of both fans and judges as the fourth season of Idol wound to a close in the spring of 2005, and her win brought with it a recording contract from Arista Nashville. Her first album, Some Hearts, was released later that year and went platinum five times, selling nearly six million copies.
Born on March 10, 1983, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Underwood grew up on a farm in Checotah, a small town with a population of just 3,500. Her father was an electronics technician and her mother taught elementary school, a profession Underwood's two older sisters would also follow. As a youngster, Underwood sang in the choir of her local Baptist church, and began entering various talent shows and landing singing engagements at local events, such as Old Settler's Day in Checotah. She idolized top-selling country artist Martina McBride, and at one point even went to Nashville—the Tennessee city that is the center of the country music industry—to audition for executives at Capitol Records. She was just 13 years old, and was almost signed to the label, but a management shakeup at the company resulted in the offer being tabled.
Underwood was a top student at Checotah High School and the salutatorian of her 2001 graduating class. After the Nashville trip, she gave up any ambitions of a career in music, but was comfortable on stage thanks to her involvement in college beauty pageants when she was a student at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She majored in communications with a focus on journalism, and hoped to become a television newscaster when she finished her degree.
In the fall of 2004, Underwood decided to try out for the coming season of American Idol, and traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, for the audition. She won a spot on the show, and made her debut on March 22, 2005, performing "Alone" by Heart, the 1987 hit from the sister-duo rock act. When she finished the song, American Idol 's notoriously harsh judge Simon Cowell asserted, "Not only will you win this show, you will sell more records than any other previous Idol winner," according to Entertainment Weekly writer Dave Karger.
Underwood remained a fan favorite over the next two months, and on May 25, 2005, beat out Bo Bice to win the fourth season of the show. Signed to Arista Nashville, Underwood released her first single, "Inside Your Heaven," just 20 days later. It reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Pop 100 charts, and was included on her debut album, Some Hearts, which came out in November of 2005. Its songs were a mix of pop and country tunes and had been written for Underwood by several talented songwriters. The album made it to number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and its second single, "Jesus, Take the Wheel," received major airplay on Christian and gospel radio. A third single, "Some Hearts," even fared well on pop and adult contemporary radio stations. But it was "Before He Cheats" that proved Simon Cowell correct—Underwood's lament about an unfaithful lover sold more than two million copies after its release in August of 2006, and remained at the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Country chart for five weeks.
Underwood had been forced to put her studies at Northeastern State University on hold because of her American Idol success, but did return to complete her degree and graduated magna cum laude in May of 2006. She embarked on separate summer tour dates with Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley, and began winning a slew of awards, including Best New Female Vocalist at the Academy of Country Music Awards, which also named "Jesus, Take the Wheel" its Single of the Year. That song won the Country Recorded Song of the Year from the Gospel Music Association, and at the Country Music Awards Underwood won the Horizon Award for best new artist as well as Female Vocalist of the Year. At the Grammy Awards in February of 2007, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" won for Best Country Song of the Year, and Underwood won for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best New Artist. She was the first American Idol winner ever to be nominated in the Grammy's Best New Artist category.
Even the video for "Before He Cheats" won Video of the Year at the Country Music Television Awards in 2007. Asked by music writer Ken Tucker in a Billboard interview if she was surprised at the enthusiastic welcome the sometimes overly insular country music industry gave her, she replied, "You never know how people are going to take a newcomer, especially somebody who came into the scene unconventionally," adding that "everybody has been great. Other artists, producers, people that I've worked with, people that I've met along the way—they've all been very proud, I think, that somebody would represent country music on a national TV show."
When Underwood won the Country Music Association Award for Best Female Vocalist in November of 2006, television cameras captured the reaction of fellow nominee Faith Hill, who appeared to be upset when Underwood's name was read as the winner. Hill claimed her reaction—in which she mouthed the word "What?" as she raised both arms, and then stalked off—was a joke. The incident, however, became an ignition point for a fan-fueled rivalry between the two top-selling artists. "Half of the people got that" it was a joke, Underwood told Karger. "She called me immediately after that happened. I felt so horrible, and I even told her that. I was like, ‘I'm sorry for what I'm sure is about to happen.’"
In early 2007 Underwood went to work on her next album. She spent time in Nashville crafting songs with the help of top songwriters—her first foray into writing her own material—and was credited on four of the 13 tracks on Carnival Ride, released in October of 2007. One of them was "So Small," the first single, which became her fourth number one single on the Billboard Country Singles chart. Unlike her debut record, Carnival Ride was a much more straightforward country album, with a marked absence of songs that could become crossover hits on the pop or adult contemporary charts. Reviewing it for Entertainment Weekly, Leah Greenblatt asserted that Underwood's sophomore effort "covers its bases impeccably, from the roof-raising opener ‘Flat on the Floor’ to the gorgeous, torchy ballad ‘I Know You Won't’ and the already-massive anthem ‘So Small.’"
Underwood has been a vegetarian since her teen years in Checotah, telling Shirley Halperin in Teen People that being raised on a farm and growing up around animals was the reason behind her decision. "My friends would raise cows, feed them, brush them and get to know the animals so they could show them [at livestock shows]. Then they'd butcher and eat them. I would feel horribly guilty and couldn't do it." In her personal life, she has been linked with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and actor Chace Crawford of Gossip Girl. Tucker asked her what had surprised her most about her sudden fame. "It's hard work. I don't think I realized how much really goes into it. It's a huge machine, a huge company, that has all kinds of people around you and you all have the same goal. I'm pretty much the spokesperson of all this other work that goes in behind it."
Selected discography
LPs
Some Hearts, Arista Nashville, 2005.
Carnival Ride, Arista Nashville, 2007.
Singles
"Inside Your Heaven," Arista Nashville, 2005.
"Jesus, Take the Wheel," Arista Nashville, 2005.
"Some Hearts," Arista Nashville, 2005.
"Don't Forget to Remember Me," Arista Nashville, 2006.
"Before He Cheats," Arista Nashville, 2006.
"So Small," Arista Nashville, 2007.
"Wasted," Arista Nashville, 2007.
"I'll Stand by You," Arista Nashville, 2007.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, January 20, 2007, p. 27.
Cosmopolitan, May 2007, p. 48.
Entertainment Weekly, October 26, 2007, p. 24; November 2, 2007, p. 64.
Teen People, September 2006, p. 84.
USA Today, October 19, 2007, p. 1E.
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