Carrie Underwood wows Orlando!
The very beautiful Carrie Underwood visited UCF, Orlando last night and she gave everyone a fantastic show. The 25 year old from Muskogee, Oklahoma has certainly come along way since she became the fourth winner of American Idol on 25th May 2005.
Little Big Town opened the evening, a band I’d never heard before and they were an extremely good choice as they soon had the UCF arena rocking with their brand of country music. It has to be said that I’m not a great fan of country music in general but I did enjoy their energy and the fact that there didn’t appear to be a lead singer, as they simply rotated the lead role amongst themselves. A nice change and that kept it nice and fresh. So the band who have charted eleven singles on the Billboard Hot Charts gave us the perfect start.
After a short delay it was time for the main act… Carrie. Her entry was different as she arose from below the stage to a raised platform at the rear. Cute. And she then preceded to work her audience to maximum effect as she belted out some of her more famous hits; hits like “Jesus, Take The Wheel”, “Don’t Forget To Remember Me”, “Before He Cheats” and an amusing “American Girl” sung with an overwhelmed 6 year old grabbed from the audience.
Carrie’s career to date has been pretty amazing. I can still recall the evening when Simon Cowell made the prediction that Carrie would not only win American Idol that year but also go onto sell more records than any other Idol winner. The man knows his music.
So far Carrie has picked up over 70 awards in just three years and these include some of the most distinguished awards there are in the music industry. For a start there’s Best New Artist – MTV Video Awards, Female Vocalist of the Year – Academy of Country Music Awards, Grammy Awards for Best New Female Artist and then there’s a whole host of awards for her singles and her videos alone!
Her albums “Some Hearts” and “Carnival Ride” have both been phenomenal successes. The large first week sales of “Some Hearts” made it #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and the biggest debut of any country artist since the advent of the SoundScan system in 1991. Some Hearts has since been certified septuple Platinum by the RIAA, and is the fastest-selling debut country album in the history of the SoundScan era. Not only that but it also received four Grammy nominations.
“Carnival Ride” was certified double platinum as of December 14, 2007 and three songs from the album have reached #1 on the Country Music Chart. To date, Carrie has had seven #1’s and six consecutive #1 on the Hot Country Chart. An astonishing record.
Here’s a brief video I did of what was a very enjoyable evening:
I love Carrie Underwood’s recently released video – Undo It. Unbelievable that she was a nobody simply a few years ago.
Brendan Nuding
May 11, 2010 at 6:06 am