Many readers likely know that Carrie Underwood won the 4th season of American Idol in 2005. Even so, you might be surprised by just how big she is. Here goes. Underwood was the only solo country artist to have a Billboard Hot 100 #1 in the 2000s (Inside Your Heaven, her debut single). She has 85 million record sales worldwide. She is the 10th highest female artist (and highest female country artist) on the Recording Academy’s Top Artists (Digital Singles) ranking of all time.
Carrie Underwood has achieved the most #1s on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. She has won 8 Grammy Awards and is an inductee of the Grand Ole Opry. Billboard named her the best female country artist of the 2000s and 2010s, while Rolling Stone called her “the female vocalist of her generation in any genre.” One of the keys to Underwood’s success is that she often hits the sweet spot between pop and country – and she can rock. Here, she rocks out with Steven Tyler at the ACM Awards 2011.
Knxcholx approves. She writes, “My god! What an icon Steven Tyler is! Damn near 70 years old and killing it! And Carrie just rocks! Her voice is amazing! Two amazing people!” Fairie Idol gushes: “They burned that stage up with their collaboration. I love love love Steven Tyler so much. Carrie rocked too. Love them both.” McKinley observes that “you know you’re watching one of the hottest performances of all time when all the stars in the Country Music Awards audience are acting like paying fans.”
In the video, it is noticeable how the audience stands up after Steven Tyler’s appearance. No wonder. Tyler’s entrance from the centre back evokes one of the most iconic images in late-20th-century popular culture – the moment Steven Tyler breaks through the wall between the rock studio and Run DMC’s rap recording session in the video for the seminal, Rick-Rubin-produced Walk This Way. How about we listen to the song that kicked off Carrie Underwood’s career, Inside Your Heaven (2007)? Let’s go:
Interestingly, the two finalists of American Idol 2005 both released versions of “Inside Your Heaven” a week apart. Underwood went to #1 on the Hot Hundred, while Bo Bice went to #2. Not bad for a song that Chuck Taylor of Billboard called “dauntingly shallow”!
On June 9, 2023, Underwood premiered her Sirius XM channel, Carrie’s Country. As befits an artist of her stature, Carrie Underwood has a Las Vegas residency (called Reflection) which is booked until the end of August 2024. The LA Times reports that the sold-out REFLECTION was “specifically designed for the 5,000-capacity, state-of-the-art Resorts World Theatre, where even the furthest seats are only 150 feet from the stage”. The write-up concludes: “Carrie Underwood’s jaw-dropping REFLECTION: The Las Vegas Residency is a show almost inconceivable anywhere but Sin City.”
