Carrie Underwood Bio
About Carrie Underwood
American Idol Carrie Underwood was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma and raised on a farm near the small town of Checotah. Carrie says the “best family in the world was waiting for me” when she arrived on March 10, 1983 to the delight of her parents Steve and Carole and sisters Shanna and Stephanie, who were nine and twelve when Carrie was born. Carrie enjoyed the usual small town pursuits growing up, climbing trees and spending time in the outdoors. Animals were a big part of her life. A big fan of sports, Carrie played softball for many years until the game took a backseat to music in her early teens.
At age thirteen, her current manager auditioned Carrie for a recording
contract with Capitol Records. The
company, however, was going through major personnel changes at that time, and
the contract never materialized. Carrie
continued her musical pursuits in high school, graduating from Checotah High in
2001 as salutatorian. She majored in
communications at
The next year saw Carrie catapult to stardom on American Idol. An early
favorite, portrayed in footage shot at home on the farm even before the first
round of auditions was complete, Carrie lived up to her billing.
She easily made the top twelve and was voted through by
Following Carrie’s rendition of Heart’s “Alone” on the March 22 episode, a full two months before the show’s finals, notoriously harsh American Idol judge Simon Cowell was moved to proclaim “Carrie, you’re … the person to beat. I will make a prediction, not only will you win this competition, but you will sell more records than any other previous [Idol] winner.” Cowell added the next week that Carrie has “the it factor that will make you a star.” In the later weeks of the show, however, southern rocker Bo Bice emerged as a very strong competitor and a fan favorite. Remaining Carrie’s strongest supporter to the end, however, Cowell declared after Carrie’s final performance of the show, Angels Brought Me Here, “I think you’ve done enough to win the competition.” And in fact Carrie became the fourth American Idol on May 25, 2005.
Along with her prestigious title, Carrie earned a recording contract with Arista Records. Her first single, “Inside Your Heaven,” debuted on June 14, a mere three weeks after her victory on Idol, at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. First week sales reached 170,000 copies. However the single was largely ignored by country radio stations, climbing only to #59 on the country charts.
Carrie’s second single, Jesus, Take
the Wheel, was much better received by country stations.
Made available on October 18, 2005, it received enough airplay to debut
at #39 on the Billboard Country Chart that same week, establishing a new record
and quickly climbing to #1. The song
also debuted at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching a peak of #25. Carrie’s
first album, Some Hearts, hit the
stores on November 15, 2005. That
evening, Carrie served as a presenter and also performed Jesus, Take the Wheel at the 39th annual Country Music
Association awards in
Carrie performed the National Anthem to open Game 4 of the 2005 NBA Finals. Later that year she starred in a series of ads for Hershey’s Chocolate, singing the company’s jingles while wearing vintage Hershey’s t-shirts. Carrie is also the spokesperson for Skechers shoes, following in the fashionable footsteps of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The accolades continued as Carrie was named “Oklahoman of the Year” by Oklahoma Today magazine in December 2005. That same month, she performed in TNT’s Christmas in Washington TV special, which was taped in front of President Bush’s family. Carrie also hosted a Christmas radio special, Christmas in the Country, which received airplay in late December. Carrie’s success continued into the New Year when on January 9, 2006 Some Hearts was certified Double Platinum with shipments of over two-million, making it the fastest-selling debut country album in the history of Nielsen SoundScan.
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