Happy birthday, Carrie!
Happy 36th birthday, Carrie Underwood! The singer was born on this date, March 10, in 1983, in Muskogee, Okla.
Underwood is the youngest of three girls born to Stephen and Carole Underwood. From an early age, the now-country superstar showed a propensity toward music and performed frequently at her family’s church, the First Free Will Baptist Church, as well as at events in her hometown of Checotah, Okla.
“I had a very happy childhood, full of the wonderful, simple things that children love to do,” Underwood says. “Growing up in the country, I enjoyed things like playing on dirt roads, climbing trees, catching little woodland creatures and, of course, singing.”
When Underwood was 14 years old, she earned the opportunity to sing for executives at Capitol Records, which almost resulted in an early record deal, before personnel changes canceled those plans.
“I honestly think it’s a lot better that nothing came out of it now, because I wouldn’t have been ready then,” the artist later said (quote via Taste of Country). “Everything has a way of working out.”
Following graduation as salutatorian from Checotah High School in 2001, Underwood enrolled in Northeastern State University, studying mass communications, and put her dreams of being a singer to the side. But when offered the chance to audition for Season 4 of American Idol in St. Louis, Mo., she jumped at the chance. The then-21-year-old performed the Bonnie Raitt classic “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” impressing judges Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell, the latter of whom stated, “Carrie, I think you’re very good.”
Underwood won her season of American Idol, thereby launching her superstar career. Her debut album, Some Hearts, released in 2005, has sold more than 8 million copies and includes the No. 1 singles “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Before He Cheats” and “Wasted.”
Underwood’s sophomore record, Carnival Ride, was released in 2007, followed by Play On in 2009, Blown Away in 2012, Storyteller in 2015 and Cry Pretty in 2018. She has scored numerous chart-topping singles — several of which she wrote — including “So Small,” “Cowboy Casanova,” “Something in the Water” and “Smoke Break.”
This Article Was Originally Posted at www.TheBoot.com
