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NEWS UPDATES:
Beauty, brains or brawn? Who will fair better on the dance floor? Watch the new crop in this season’s Dancing with the Stars premiering Tuesday, September 12 at 8/7c on ABC! September 12, 2006 Idol's' Underwood Charms Fans at Fair (Source: The Wichita Eagle) - concert REVIEWSep. 10--We've had plenty of chances to see "American Idol" alumni. Josh Gracin, Fantasia Barrino and Ruben Studdard have performed at the Wichita River Festival, and the not-quite-as-famous contestant Lisa Redding sang in several Crown Uptown Theatre productions this summer. But rarely does a post-reality-show performer deliver the goods we've come to expect from their silver screen appearances. That's not the case with Carrie Underwood. Nearly 6,000 fans turned out for the 2005 "Idol" winner's Grandstand performance Saturday at the Kansas State Fair. In her 90-minute set, Underwood proved her chops and won the audience over with her giddy, "gosh, did this really happen to me?" charm. Opener Jamey Johnson, a songwriter in the neo-traditionalist mold, did what's expected of an opening act, performing the hits he penned for Trace Adkins ("Honky Tonk Badonkadonk") and George Strait ("Give It Away"), as well as his own single "The Dollar." He delivered a few other songs about drinkin', prayin' and lovin', then cleared the way for Underwood's headlining performance. Before the wholesome singer took the stage, a few fans gathered under the grandstand near the right corner of the stage. If they looked up at just the right angle, they were sure they'd catch a glimpse of Underwood, just 20 feet away. "You can't get much closer than this," said Wichitan Kevin Berube. "I would've brought a camera if I'd known." His friend, Lydia Kilts, opened her camera phone, hoping its range would be enough to capture Underwood on stage. "I can't believe how good she and Kelly Clarkson are doing," Kilts said. "I guess it's because of what they sing. With her doing country and Kelly doing pop, they're better off than some of the others." A few minutes later, Underwood took the stage, her petite frame wrapped in a black T-shirt, low-slung jeans and a rhinestone belt. "I know we're going to have a good time," she said, gesturing toward her seven-piece band, "and I expect you're going to have a good time, too." For all her TV pedigree, in concert Underwood comes across as more genuine than the average Music Row diva. She's just a little girl on a big stage, giggling her way through the between-song banter when she isn't belting out material from her triple-platinum debut album, "Some Hearts." Among the highlights of her performance were "Lessons Learned," "Inside Your Heaven," "Wasted," and the audience favorite "Jesus Take the Wheel." But the true "Idol" moment came midway through the show, when Underwood asked the audience to "See if you can figure out who this is." The rose silk-screened on her T-shirt should've provided a clue, but her younger fans looked stumped when Underwood launched into a delicate, acoustic version of "Patience." "That was from a little-known band called Guns N' Roses," she said. Not trusting the audience to get it, she backpedaled. "I'm joking about the little-known part, of course." Her vocals weren't pitch perfect on every song, but Underwood seems to be hitting her stride as a headliner, in part because she's so self-deprecating. She'll point out her tendency to ramble during the between-song banter, and often reveals too much personal information, like the fact that in college she wore her PJs to class so often that she was known as "pajama girl." Later, when Underwood closed her performance with the title track from "Some Hearts," a small group of fans was still huddled under the grandstand. Berube and Kilts had never gone to find their seats. "It was too good here," they said.
September 4, 2006 Carrie Nominate for 4 CMA'S (Source: Yahoo) The final list of nominees for “The 40th Annual CMA Awards” includes an up-and-coming country artist made famous by the reality TV show American Idol. American Idol winner Carrie Underwood had four CMA Awards nominations. One of the breakout artists of the past year, Underwood definitely didn't miss the attention of CMA's voting members. She received her first CMA Awards nominations including Female Vocalist; the Horizon Award; and Single and Music Video of the Year for “Jesus Take The Wheel,” which was also nominated for Song of the Year for songwriters, Hillary Lindsey, Brett James, and Gordie Sampson. Underwood Excited over CMA Nominations (CMT.COM) Last year in New York City, Carrie Underwood turned heads at the CMA Awards with a powerful rendition of her debut single, "Jesus, Take the Wheel." The country music industry apparently noticed. This time, she's nominated for female vocalist and the Horizon Award, and she also received single and video of the year nominations for "Jesus, Take the Wheel." The song, which became Underwood's first No. 1 hit, is also nominated for song of the year, a category which recognizes songwriters. Underwood's Charisma Glows By Mark Bialczak Staff writer Maybe the two shows she did in Syracuse last September with the "American Idol" crew had Carrie Underwood feeling at home Monday night at the state fair grandstand. Or maybe her summer out on tour headlining, or opening for megastar Kenny Chesney, helped the 2005 "Idol" champion grow more comfortable. "I am chatty tonight!" Underwood said midway through her show, after telling the happy crowd of "Idol" fans - you can spot them by the way they hold up their posters of love or wave whenever they think their hero might be looking in their direction - about how important it was that she went back to get her degree after her win over Bo Bice, but before she decided everybody thought she was a dork because she spilled the beans that she was a Star Trekkie. Musically, Underwood has grown. As she started with the powerful "We're Young and Beautiful," it was easy to tell that this country music career has been good in the past 12 months to the young lady from Checotah, Okla. Underwood took the stage on a riser above her very tight six-piece band, dressed in a red shirt and jeans, complete with a big belt and very sparkly buckle. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail. There was none of the fashion glamour of the Fox TV show, but much more charisma. Underwood, whose tendency to stand at the mike and sing was one of her bugaboos on "Idol," even danced around the stage. And, oh, that voice. Underwood's got the right sound for country, a big voice that wraps itself around broken-heart songs as well as plans for revenge, as she showed with the one-two punch of "Jolene" and "Before He Cheats." She had fun with loads of material from her debut album, last year's "Some Hearts." "That's Where It Is," "Lessons Learned," "Don't Forget to Remember Me," "Inside Your Heaven," "Wasted," "I Can't Live a Lie" and "The Night Before" all soared. "Jesus, Take the Wheel" had her fans thrusting their hands in the air at the right point in the song, giving themselves up to her voice much the way the character in the song decides to put fate in Jesus' hands. The powerful title cut was perfect to close the set, and "I Ain't in Checotah Anymore" was the exclamation-point encore. Then there was the two-song break that allowed Underwood to belt out two Guns N' Roses songs, just to prove that she listened to all kinds of music while growing up. The tender "Patience" was great for the up-front acoustic circle Underwood had formed with her band, and then the electric "Sweet Child O' Mine" gave Underwood the chance to prance around the stage with a sash tied to the mike stand, just the way Axl Rose used to do it. Opener Andy Griggs carried a big voice through his set, too, but maybe he didn't feel quite as at home as Underwood. Griggs joked that it was 90 degrees when he left Nashville and nobody told him to bring his long johns. So instead he decided to heat up the night himself. In addition to his hot hits, "You Will Never Be Lonely" and "If Heaven," Griggs turned in a very hip tribute to Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, and then let his band rock out by blending "Freeborn Man" from the Outlaws and "Jessica" from the Allman Brothers Band. August 7, 2006 For The Record: Quick News On Carrie Underwood She'd spent a year as the winner of "American Idol" and was about to receive a college degree from Northeastern State University, but May was a month of dread for Carrie Underwood , who was certain her big graduation day would be a disaster. "I was like, 'People are going to boo me,' " the singer told Teen People in the magazine's September — and final — issue. Underwood, who said a story in a student newspaper claimed she was getting too much attention, got through the ceremony to receive her degree without a boo — "I was just another graduate." And while the triple-platinum country singer says she'd enjoy working in small-town broadcast journalism, a shorter career jump to a more pop sound is not in her future. "What could I bring to that market? I don't dance. I'm not a tummy show-er. ... I felt I fit in the country world, where I don't have to change." Teen People 's final issue, which also features the new cast of "Laguna Beach," is on newsstands Friday (August 4). ... July 24 , 2006 Gallery Updated The Gallery has been update with 9 photos of Carrie at her July 9, 2006 concert at The Fowlerville Fair in Fowlerville, Michigan. (Thanks to Kayla) Click here to enter the gallery. Carrie Joins Brad Paisely's Fall Tour (Source: CMT) Carrie Underwood will join Brad Paisley on the final leg of his Time Well Wasted 2006 tour that kicks off Sept. 22 in Birmingham, Ala. The tour will hit 25 other cities, including Atlanta, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Houston, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, before closing Dec. 8 in Chicago. In its attendance tally for country tours during the first six months of 2006, Paisley was in fifth place, behind Tim McGraw/Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and George Strait. "The World," the latest single from Paisley's Time Well Wasted, album is spending its third consecutive week at No. 1 on Billboard's country singles chart. The July 18 , 2006 I have Returned Sorry for the lack of updates, I moved houses. The move took time and I JUST NOW TODAY got my computer hooked back up and unpacked- and online... I am so sorry but I couldn't find someone to help me update the site. CUO will resume to it's normal activity , starting now! Underwood's Definitely Not On Idle Carrie Underwood is on Line 1, and she's calling from . . . some state that begins with an I. "I'm in Des Moines, Iowa," she says cheerfully. "No, wait, wait -- where am I? Boise, Idaho. Why do I get that confused with Des Moines, Iowa? See, I don't even know where I'm at." She laughs, and without thinking, you feel compelled to laugh with her. It's tough not to smile around the blond golden girl next door with the Oklahoma county-fair roots. Since topping Bo Bice in the 2005 American Idol finale, Underwood has developed into the hottest female country singer around, with a mantel full of CMT and Academy of Country Music awards to prove it. Now she has landed an opening slot on the Kenny Chesney tour, which stops at Gillette Stadium tomorrow. Of course, when you've performed before 30-million people on television, a stadium crowd probably seems like a birthday party sing-along. "I think Idol was definitely more nerve-racking, and harder, just because you can't see who you're singing to," she says. "When you're singing in front of live people . . . you can see how they like it or don't like it, and you can adjust and feel the energy that's coming from them." Underwood's post-Idol success seems almost predestined because she emerged with a clearly defined fan base. Underwood's strength was country, and she played to it from the start. Her reward was the triple-platinum debut album Some Hearts and a warm embrace by country fans. She's also a star on Madison Avenue. She was singing in Hershey's commercials the moment she broke through on Idol, and her ads for Skechers have been plastered in malls for the past year. "There's been so much stuff, honestly, that we've had to turn down, because it really would be kind of, 'Gah, I can't take Carrie Underwood anymore!' " she says. Yes, Underwood is unabashedly mainstream. Several of the songs on Some Hearts sound a bit "poppy," including two tracks penned by pop hitmaker Diane Warren. She has even been known to bust out the occasional Guns N' Roses cover in concert. The first song she can remember singing was Motley Crue's cover of "Smokin' In The Boys Room." "For this first album, we wanted to make it as likable to as many different people as we possibly could, without betraying who I was and who I wanted to be," she says. "There's a lot of people who watched American Idol, and a lot of people who weren't necessarily country fans who watched American Idol. So the first mission, now that they saw me and hopefully liked me on American Idol, was to hook as many people in as we can." Her smash single "Jesus, Take The Wheel," a tear-jerking ballad of born-again faith in a time of crisis, has received across-the-board acclaim. "That song is an amazing song, and I honestly think that any singer, any performer, would have done amazing with that song, just because of the power of the song. I, fortunately, was lucky enough to have it," she says. "But I think it's really spoiled me. I'm like, 'Do all songs go to No. 1? Do all songs go there that quickly?' " Underwood, who has a degree in mass communication from Northeastern State University, is also trying to develop as a songwriter. She's listed as a co-writer on her hometown tribute "I Ain't In Checotah Anymore," and she says she's slowly getting comfortable with putting her lyrics to music. "I'm getting there," she says. "I keep a journal, and I've started trying to do a little more free-thinking exercises, and writing down what I feel and what I think and what I want to say. It's getting better, and I definitely think at some point, I will be there." Does she ever gets sick of talking about American Idol? Underwood says she'd still be in Oklahoma if not for the show's producer, Simon Fuller, who remains her manager. "I know why I'm here," she says. "So I will forever be grateful and in debt to that show. So I'll do whatever they want me to do, and they can call me an American Idol as long as they want to." Carrie Underwood will be at Gillette Stadium tomorrow, along with Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson as one of the opening acts for Kenny Chesney. Show starts at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are between $85.50 and $37.50. To buy tickets call 617-931-2000 or go online to www.ticketmaster.com .
Idol Winner Relishes Starring Role Second chance pushes Underwood to No. 1 on the charts BY BRAD SCHMITT | THE NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN Less than two years ago, Carrie Underwood, a shy young Oklahoma blonde, took her first-ever flight, a trip to Hollywood to audition for "American Idol." Recently, Underwood flew three times in seven days, executing a superstar itinerary to: Las Vegas for the Academy of Country Music awards show, where she sang and won two trophies. Los Angeles to sing on this year's "American Idol" finale in front of a TV audience of 40 million. Nashville to get ready for her slot on Kenny Chesney's stadium tour. Underwood, scared to get on that first flight in 2004, now sounds like a world-weary traveler. "We flew to Vegas from New York and the flight was really delayed," she says, sarcasm creeping into her voice, "and that was awesome, because I don't need my sleep or anything." Underwood may be a bit agitated with the travel, but she couldn't be more upbeat about her life since winning "Idol" herself one year ago. Since then, Underwood has sold more than 3 million albums on the power of a No. 1 single; she has won Billboard, Dove and ACM awards. Now that she's country's "it" girl, she draws a crowd virtually everywhere she goes ... even when she stays in. Underwood reports that several little girls occasionally ring the doorbell at her home. "It's all great," she says, smiling. "I'd much rather people be excited and pay attention and stuff like that than not know who I am or what I do. So it's all good. But you've got to keep that in mind all the time." Underwood, 23, says it's still hard to get used to so much attention because she had such a quiet life before "Idol." She was the third daughter of a paper mill worker and an elementary school teacher in rural Checotah, Okla., just next to a town Merle Haggard made famous in "Okie From Muskogee." Underwood started singing as a little girl in vacation Bible school in what she describes as a "real conservative, quiet church, where you'd listen a lot, sing a hymn and leave." Underwood's only childhood conflict, as it were, would come from an occasional run-in with her mom at school when Mrs. Underwood was the substitute teacher for her class. "I stuck my tongue out behind her back," Underwood says. "I got told on." Music became fun for her when she was cast as Mother Nature singing to the animals in a fourth-grade production. Underwood began singing in talent contests locally and regionally, and at age 15, found herself with an artist development deal at Capitol Records, then home to fellow Oklahoman Garth Brooks. But the deal quickly went away when there was a change at the helm of the record company, and Underwood went back to Oklahoma heartbroken. "Dream shattered," she says, then turned more pensive. "I wasn't ready anyway." Underwood shelved her singer dreams, enrolling at nearby Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., where she studied broadcast journalism and became part of a country music review show. In fall 2004, her friends encouraged her to go to the "American Idol" auditions, and her mom drove her and a friend to St. Louis. Her adorable girl-next-door looks and kind disposition made her a natural for country music, but she stumbled a bit at first. Her first single, "Inside Your Heaven," released immediately after her May 25, 2005, win, reached No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart, but got little country radio play. A few months later, though, Underwood exploded at country radio with "Jesus, Take the Wheel," No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart for six straight weeks and Records and Radio's country airplay chart for five straight weeks. Underwood set a record for most weeks at No. 1 for a single from a new artist's debut album since those records were first kept in 1990. Underwood kept up her firsts when, in November, she made Country Music Association awards show history by becoming the first artist with only one country single out to get a performance slot. Despite her success, many fans and reporters still tie her closely to "American Idol." But Underwood says she doesn't mind because "Idol" is what brought her to a national stage. She said she feels it may have been her only way back to Nashville, because she feels the people representing her when she was 15 may have burned bridges on Music Row. American Idol' winner keeps pop-country faithful at her side Sarah Rodman THE BOSTON GLOBE The first rule of being an "American Idol" is that you don't talk about being an "American Idol." "It's a secret society," Carrie Underwood says with a laugh. Of course, the 2005 Idol victor is joking about the secret handshakes and clandestine meetings, but she says she does have an unspoken kinship with previous winners Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino and current champ Taylor Hicks — even if they tend to avoid chatting about the one thing they have in common. "It's just like, ‘Hey, what's going on? Where have you been? What are you doing?' " the 23-year-old Oklahoma native says of the winners when they intersect at awards shows. "I think we all kind of understand each other and we all understand what we've been going through, but the conversation doesn't really turn that much to American Idol." That's partly because, after the big tearful win and the giddy confetti drop, most of the champs try to distance themselves from the television show with the speed of an Olympic sprinter. Behind Clarkson, Underwood has been the most successful out of the box. No matter how placid she appeared on the show, Underwood is a savvy girl — she went back to get her degree, magna cum laude, after her win — and knew exactly what she needed to do to capitalize on her momentum. While several past winners and runners-up stumbled on their first albums in search of sounds that would please everyone, Underwood focused on her strength — and more important, her fan base — in pop country. "I definitely made it clear what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go, and it was just a matter of making sure we were all on the same page," Underwood says about working with manager and Idol creator Simon Fuller. The pair recruited respected producer Dann Huff (Faith Hill), a cadre of Nashville songwriters and musicians, and song ace Diane Warren. "We were really smart about it. I knew what I wanted to be. It's a good time for females in country music. I think there's not enough, and it's always nice to be a minority like that." It's a minority that includes heroes such as Faith Hill and Martina McBride, and Some Hearts deftly balances the styles of the two women. There are the heart-tugging if corny ballads Underwood sang well on Idol — such as first single Jesus Take the Wheel — and the chipper, well-scrubbed pop of the title track, written by Warren. There's even a sassy Gretchen Wilson-esque number called Before He Cheats, that has the singer encouraging betrayed women to do a number on their exes' cars so they'll think twice about straying in the future. (A good girl to the bone, Underwood puts a disclaimer on her Web site saying she has never keyed anyone's car and doesn't condone it. "I had these visions of angry women everywhere destroying their ex-boyfriends' cars and saying ‘It's all Carrie Underwood's fault!' " she says.) Her commercial instincts have paid off handsomely. Not only has Some Hearts sold 3 million copies in 31 weeks, it's still sitting pretty in the Billboard country charts. Underwood has also loaded up on trophies, including two Academy of Country Music Awards, two Country Music Television Awards, three Billboard Awards, and even a Gospel Music Award for Jesus Take the Wheel. Grammy nominations seem a foregone conclusion. All of which makes one wonder how the young singer might handle rejection. But Underwood has a keen sense of how she got where she is. "I definitely know I'm very lucky, and I know that it doesn't happen like this for everybody," she says on the phone from a Boise, Idaho, tour stop. "But I try to live in the moment as much as I possibly can and not really think about ‘what if? what if?' because that's useless. I definitely keep my fingers crossed that everything I do turns out that well, but, if not, I've had a really awesome time and I've loved every second of it." June 3 , 2006 Carrie's Post Idol Existence (Source: Yahoo) Friday June 2 10:28 AM ET She may have passed her American Idol title on to Taylor Hicks, but Carrie Underwood is far from idle. The season four champ has laced up a second deal as the face of sneaker purveyor Skechers and will appear in magazine ads beginning this month. The new campaign, which was shot earlier this month, is said to be based on a behind-the-scenes perspective of Underwood's life as a multi-platinum recording artist about to embark on her nationwide summer tour. Since winning Idol last May, the "Jesus, Take the Wheel" singer has gone on to sell more than 3 million copies of her debut album, Some Hearts (currently back in the top 10 on the Billboard 200, thanks to her sales-boosting appearance on the season five Idol finale). She also picked up Top Female Vocalist and Single Record of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards last month, and Breakthrough Video and Best Female Video at the CMT Awards in April, not to mention a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association. Along the way, she also found the time to graduate magna cum laude from Oklahoma's Northeastern State University. You know, just in case the whole recording artist thing falls through. Underwood is currently touring the country in support of Some Hearts through Oct. 1.
DFTRM Behind The Scenes Photos I have had these for a while, sorry for the delay in posting them. I have added 14 new behind the scenes photos taken on the set of Don't Forget To Remember Me. Click here to enter or by clicking on the photo below.
GL Mag Scans Thanks to Krista who has emailed us scan of Carrie in the July 2006 issue of GL Mag! Click here to enter the gallery or by clicking on the magazine front photo below!
June 2 , 2006 Back To School Carrie Underwood Carrie is doing a new ad campaigne for Skechers. First annouced last April, ( Fair Disclosure Wire; 4/26/2006) released the transcript of the quarterly 2006 Skechers conference call. Transcript: "Also impacting our sales for women and young girls is our SKECHERS spokesperson, Carrie Underwood. We believe the triple-platinum recording artist in SKECHERS ads and in-store displays has had very positive effect on our brand image, as she is perceived as America's sweetheart and a true success story. In addition to our Carrie Underwood ad, we are supporting many of our core styles with product-intensive print and television ads.
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Twist (4/ 2006 issue) 
