Carrie Underwood keeps flying under the radar
Country superstar still sells oodles of albums, but never attracts a pop-culture frenzy
Carrie Underwood has a voice capable of stunning people into silence. It’s a voice that launched the country singer to superstar status not long after she appeared on American Idol a decade ago and judge Simon Cowell told her, “Not only will you win this show, you will sell more records than any other previous Idol winner.”
Cowell proved prophetic. About 15.3 million in U.S. album sales later, Underwood shattered any expectation of starting out on a reality singing competition. Not only does she regularly sell out arenas and scoop up Grammys, she’s become a prolific Nashville songwriter in her own right, with co-writing credits on half of her 21 No. 1 hits. She co-wrote the majority of her fifth studio album, Storyteller, released Friday, including her current top 10 single, “Smoke Break.”
Yet with all the accolades, Underwood, 32, still somehow flies under the radar.
Maybe she’s just not polarizing enough. (When’s the last time you can remember a “Carrie Underwood controversy”?) Maybe it’s her natural inclination as an introvert to shy away from the spotlight. Or, maybe it just looks as if her fairy-tale life and success have come to her so easily that some people don’t think to give her enough credit.
Even now, Underwood says that occasionally — like when she’s on an awards show stage in front of her peers — self-conscious thoughts float through her mind. Though at this point, she hosts the shows (she will co-host the Country Music Association Awards with Brad Paisley for the eighth time Nov. 4). She feels the need to prove that even if she didn’t spend years scraping by as an unknown singer, she still belongs.
Unlike some reality competitors who sputter out, Underwood moved to Nashville and her career exploded. Five months after she was crowned Idol winner, she released “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” written by Hillary Lindsey, Brett James and Gordie Sampson. The song went No. 1 and fuelled Underwood’s smash 2005 debut album, Some Hearts, which went seven-times platinum.
Underwood casts a sweet yet tough persona, passionate about topics including animal rights, and speaks often about her Christian faith. She’s the everyday wife and mom with a goofy sense of humour. She married Nashville Predators hockey player Mike Fisher in 2010 and they have a 7-month-old son, Isaiah. “We’re a normal couple . . . and we make it a point to raise Isaiah as just a normal kid.”
The characters in her songs, however, tell very different stories.
Take “Before He Cheats,” about a woman taking a bat to an unfaithful boyfriend’s car; or “Two Black Cadillacs,” in which a wife and mistress team up to kill the philandering husband. On her new album, there’s “Church Bells,” about an abused woman getting revenge; “Dirty Laundry,” centred on a lady who discovers her husband’s affair while washing his clothes; and “Choctaw County Affair,” about a mysterious love triangle. Underwood enjoys writing those dark songs, calling them “minimovies.”
“I love strong women. I feel like in the characters in the stories, when they’re pushed to their breaking point and they end up winning, they fight back,” Underwood said.
Storyteller also has a softer side, such as “The Girl You Think I Am,” which Underwood wrote for her dad, and quiet final track “What I Never Knew I Always Wanted,” Underwood’s ode to life with her baby son.
If history is any indication, any song Underwood releases will inevitably rocket up the country charts. Although seemingly a natural for the pop world, Underwood has never felt any desire to pull a Swift and cross over to a different genre.