Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, author, entrepreneur, and record producer. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005. Her debut single, "Inside Your Heaven," made her the only country artist to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the only solo country artist in the 2000s to have a number-one song on the Hot 100. Her debut album, Some Hearts (2005), was bolstered by the successful crossover singles "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and "Before He Cheats," becoming the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, the fastest-selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history and the best-selling country album of the last 17 years. She won three Grammy Awards for the album, including Best New Artist.
Her second album, Carnival Ride (2007), had one of the biggest opening weeks of all time by a female artist and won two Grammy Awards. Its follow-up, Play On (2009), was preceded by the single "Cowboy Casanova," which had one of the biggest single-week upward movements on the Hot 100. She achieved the second best-selling release by a woman in 2012 and won a Grammy Award with her fourth album, Blown Away (2012). Her first compilation, Greatest Hits: Decade #1 (2014), broke chart and sales records and spawned the Grammy Award-winning crossover single "Something in the Water." Her fifth album, Storyteller (2015), made her the only country artist to have all studio albums reach either numbers one or two on the Billboard 200 chart. With her sixth album, Cry Pretty (2018), she became the only woman to top the Billboard 200 with four country albums, and had both the biggest week for any album by a woman in 2018 and the best-selling solo female album of the year. Her first Christmas project, My Gift (2020), was her record-setting eighth consecutive career-opening number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
Underwood has sold 70 million records worldwide. She is the sixth highest-certified female artist, the second highest-certified country artist and the highest-certified female country artist of all time on the RIAA's Top Artists (Digital Singles) ranking, also being the female artist with the most number-one entries on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, with 15. Her accolades include seven Grammy Awards, 11 Billboard Music Awards, 15 American Music Awards, a Guinness world record and inductions into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry. Billboard named her the top female country artist of the 2000s and 2010s and Some Hearts the top country album of the 2000s. Pollstar ranked her among the top thirteen all-genre female touring artists of the twenty-first century, with over 4.3 million concert tickets sold. Acclaimed by Rolling Stone as "the female vocalist of her generation of any genre", she was listed by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. Forbes has declared her the most successful American Idol winner. Outside of music, Underwood has ventured into fashion and writing, releasing her fitness clothing line CALIA by Carrie in 2015 and the New York Times best-selling fitness and lifestyle book Find Your Path in 2020.
Last Updated: July 16, 2021
