Tag Archives: Carrie Underwood

NECM’s WCW Spotlight: Carrie Underwood

We, at New England Country Music, want to bring on the new year with a fun series spotlighting women in country music. While the acronym WCW, standing for “Women Crush Wednesday,” is often used for physical attraction, that is not the case here. This series will feature talented women who are crushing it in the country music scene.

Let’s change things up a bit for this week and talk about one of the current powerhouse women in the country music scene, Carrie Underwood. Little did anyone know that the blonde-haired, farm girl from Checotah, Oklahoma was going to become a household name. Growing up in a religious home, Underwood began singing at church when she was quite young and continued singing in local talent shows in and around her home town. She was a well-rounded teenager, playing sports like softball and basketball, cheerleading for the blue and white Checotah High School Wildcats, and graduating as the salutatorian. After high school she attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK. Her academic success continued as she graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Mass Communications. Like many college students, she worked her tail off at various jobs including a zoo, a veterinary clinic, and a pizzeria. She could have never known back then that today, she would have over eleven million Facebook followers. How quickly life can change!

Underwood’s life changed completely in the spring of 2005, after winning the fourth season of American Idol. The soon to be thirty-six-year-old vegan is not only a super talented vocalist, she is also an accomplished songwriter and actress. Her very first single, ‘Inside Your Heaven,’ released in June 2005, was the only single by a solo country artist between 2000-2009 to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Five months later, she dropped her first full length album, ‘Some Hearts.’ It debuted as number one on Billboard Top Country Albums and went on to become the best-selling country album in the United States for 2006 and 2007. It is certified eight times platinum by the RIAA. Two years later, in 2007, Underwood released her second album, ‘Carnival Ride.’ It sold over half a million copies in its first week. It is certified four times multi-platinum. Another two years passed and then Underwood released her third album, ‘Play On,’ which sold over 300,000 copies in its first week. She went on to release her fourth album, ‘Blown Away’ in 2012, her fifth album, ‘Storyteller’ in 2015, and her sixth album, ‘Cry Pretty’ in 2018. Although music has been her predominant career, she has immersed herself in the world of acting. In February 2010, she performed a voice-over on PBS’s classic show Sesame Street. A couple months later, she took on her first major acting role as “Tiffany” on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Her first film role was in the 2011 movie Soul Surfer. And in 2013, Underwood appeared in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live as Maria von Trapp. With six albums under her belt and some time on the big screen, we’re confident that Carrie Underwood will continue to impress us.

Since she came into our lives, Carrie Underwood has sold sixty-five million records worldwide. She has had twenty-six number one singles, co-writing thirteen of them. She has won seven GRAMMY awards, ten Billboard Music Awards, fourteen ACM Awards, eighteen CMT Music Awards, and nine CMA Awards. She has been a member of the Grande Ole Opry for over ten years. Billboard referred to her as “the ultimate Idol success story.” Forbes mentioned that Underwood was “the most successful American Idol winner of all time, with more albums sold and more revenue generated than any of the other contestants in the show’s 15 seasons.” Though she may have had her start on Idol, there’s absolutely no stopping her now.

The happily married mom has two little ones. Isaiah will be turning four next month and Jacob was born just last week! I’m sure you didn’t miss Carrie’s social media pictures that were released shortly after giving birth to Jacob, gorgeous as ever and make-up free! We are so excited for her growing family and also for her Cry Pretty Tour which is set to start in May of 2019. Joining her on tour are two other groups of dynamic women in country music, Maddie and Tae and Runaway June. Be sure to catch them all when they stop in Boston, MA at the TD Garden on Thursday, October 10th.

Don’t forget to download one of our favorite Carrie Underwood songs, ‘Love Wins,’ from her album ‘Cry Pretty’ on iTunes here.

‘The Fighter,’ a collaboration with Keith Urban, can be found on his album ‘Ripcord.’ You can download it from iTunes here.

Stay connected with Carrie Underwood by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Be on the lookout for our next installment of WCW in country music. It is set to hit our page on Wednesday, February 13th.

Carrie Underwood: ‘Cry Pretty’ Single Review

On April 11th, Carrie Underwood released her latest single ‘Cry Pretty’. It is the first song to be included on her upcoming album of the same name, which is slated to be released on September 14th. With an accomplished career as the woman with the most number one hits on the Billboard Country Airplay Chart, Carrie’s success is not an accident. She consistently wows the country audience with her powerful vocals, passionate delivery, and relatability. This song is no different. It is clear why the singer has chosen this track as a leading single and seems very natural to say that Carrie has done it again. The power ballad was written by Carrie Underwood, Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose, and Lori McKenna and sends an empowering message.

The lyrics, You can pretty lie and say it’s okay, You can pretty smile and just walk away, Pretty much fake your way through anything, But you can’t cry pretty, are intensely delivered by Carrie in the single’s slow, but catchy chorus. One listen to the captivating song will have you humming along to its passionate melody. Carrie’s knockout delivery takes the forefront in this single, as with many of her previous hits. Her voice reflects a vulnerability that makes it clear that she identifies with the song’s message. Set to a slow, but enthralling instrumental, the words the all women group of songwriters chose are emotional, honest, and empowering. The entirety of the song is very relatable for anyone who has struggled to keep their composure while holding back emotions; You can’t turn off the flood when the dam breaks. Carrie wrote in a letter to her fans, “It really speaks to a lot of things that have happened in the past year and I hope when you hear it, you can relate those feelings to those times in your life. It’s emotional. It’s real. And it ROCKS!”

The world television debut performance of ‘Cry Pretty’ was delivered by Underwood during the ACM Awards. Carrie sported glitter tears as part of her makeup to match the look she revealed in the songs promotional photos. This was her first public appearance after a horrific fall in November that left her with a broken wrist and the need for more than 40 stitches on her face. Much of the buzz around this performance is about if anyone can see a difference in her appearance, but what we should be recognizing is that she absolutely killed the performance. While belting out the ballad, the thought of the song’s relevance to her situation recovering from the accident was apparent; she received a heartfelt and well-deserved standing ovation from the audience. We are happy to see that Carrie is doing well and getting back out on stage. She has even hinted that a tour is on the horizon soon. She has no New England show dates planned yet, but you can keep up with Carrie on her Website, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

You can purchase ‘Cry Pretty’ on iTunes here.

Favorite Lyrics: But sometimes my emotions get the best of me, And falling apart is as human as it gets.