Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005. Underwood’s single “Inside Your Heaven” made her the only country artist to debut atop 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. She won three Grammy Awards for the album, including Best New Artist. The next studio album, Carnival Ride (2007) had one of the biggest opening weeks of all time by a female artist and won two Grammy Awards. Her third studio album, Play On (2009), produced 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 compilation Greatest Hits: Decade #1 (2014) spawned the crossover single “Something in the Water”. Her fifth studio album, Storyteller (2015), made her the only country artist to have all first five 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 the biggest week for any album by a woman in 2018. She released her first Christmas project, My Gift, in 2020, and first gospel collection, My Savior, in 2021. Her 2022 studio album, Denim & Rhinestones, marked a return to her country pop sound.

Underwood has sold 85 million records worldwide. She is the tenth highest-certified female 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 (16) on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. Her accolades include eight Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, 17 American Music Awards, five Guinness World Records and inductions into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry. Billboard ranked her the top female country artist of the 2000s and 2010s, and Some Hearts the top country album of the 2000s. Rolling Stone applauded her as “the female vocalist of her generation in any genre”, Time listed her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014 and Forbes 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.

Carrie Marie Underwood was born on March 10, 1983, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, to Carole (née Shatswell) and Steve Underwood. She has two older sisters, Shanna and Stephanie, and was raised on her parents’ farm in the nearby rural town of Checotah. Her father worked in a paper mill while her mother taught elementary school. During her childhood, Underwood performed at Robbins Memorial Talent Show, and sang at her local church, First Free Will Baptist Church. She later sang for local events in Checotah, including Old Settler’s Day and the Lions Club.

A local admirer arranged for her to go to Nashville when she was 14 to audition for Capitol Records. In 1997, Capitol Records was preparing a contract for Underwood but canceled it when company management changed. Underwood said of the event, “I honestly think it’s a lot better that nothing came out of it now, because I wouldn’t have been ready then. Everything has a way of working out.”

While at Checotah High School, she was an Honor Society member, a cheerleader, and played basketball and softball. Underwood graduated from Checotah High School in 2001 as salutatorian. She did not initially pursue singing after graduation and once said “After high school, I pretty much gave up on the dream of singing. I had reached a point in my life where I had to be practical and prepare for my future in the ‘real world'”.

She attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, graduating magna cum laude, in 2006, with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication and an emphasis in journalism. She spent part of one of her summers as a page for Oklahoma State Representative Bobby Frame. She also waited tables at a pizzeria, worked at a zoo, and worked at a veterinary clinic. Underwood is an alumna of the Alpha Iota chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. For two summers, she performed in Northeastern State University’s Downtown Country show in Tahlequah. She competed in numerous beauty pageants at the university and was selected as Miss NSU runner-up in 2004.

In mid-2004, Underwood auditioned for American Idol in St. Louis, Missouri, singing Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”. After she sang “Could’ve Been” by Tiffany on the top 12 girls night, judge Simon Cowell commented that she would be one of the favorites to win the competition. During the top 11 finalists’ performance on the March 22, 2005, Idol episode, Underwood sang a rendition of the number one 1980s rock hit “Alone”, made famous by Heart, and Cowell predicted that Underwood would not only win the competition, but she would also outsell all previous Idol winners. One of the show’s producers later said she dominated the voting, winning every week by a large margin. She gained a fan base known as “Carrie’s Care Bears” during the course of the show. During the final, she sang “Bless the Broken Road” with Rascal Flatts. On May 25, 2005, Underwood became the season four winner. Her winnings included a recording contract worth at least a million dollars, use of a private jet for a year, and a Ford Mustang convertible.

Underwood’s music career began with the release of her first single, “Inside Your Heaven”, on June 14, 2005. The song debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, with Underwood becoming only the third artist to debut in the top slot since chart policy changed in 1998. She also broke Billboard chart history as the first country music artist ever to debut at number one on the Hot 100 and the song became the first song from a country artist to go to number one on the Hot 100 since country group Lonestar’s “Amazed” did so in 2000. “Inside Your Heaven” is the only single by a solo country artist in the decade of 2000–2009 to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also debuted at number one on the Billboard Pop 100 and on the Canadian Singles Chart, topping it for seven consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-running number one single of 2005 in Canada. It sold nearly one million copies and was certified gold by the RIAA and double platinum by the CRIA.