Carrie Underwood

Set to exhibit her remarkable voice at the 2005 Pete Newell Challenge held on December 21 in Oakland, Carrie Marie Underwood has really soared to be a bright rising star in the music scene following her success to garner 3 Billboard Music Awards that also included the title of Country Single Sales Artist of the Year. In the anticipation for the airing of her documented musical journey through CMT's specials, "In the Moment: Carrie Underwood" on December 16, this charming singer has solemnly prepared herself to deliver another stunning performance while also to bring joy along with Ciara, Rascal Flatts, and The Click Five on TNT's annual presentation of "Christmas in Washington" by December 14.

Raised in a family cattle farm in Checotah, Oklahoma from the day she was born on March 10, 1983, Carrie has shown her deep interest in music at such a young age, even had already sung with the local church by the time she was 3. Since then, music has become an inseparable part in her life for she continued to perform songs at every occasion, be it county fair, school event and musical production, talent competition, or car show. However, the thought of pursuing a singing career apparently had not yet been the main priority in her life as she instead chose to put concentration on her study, entering Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma after her graduation from Checotah High School.

Spending her college years to study mass communication, Carrie was in the brink to reach her bachelor degree when she learned about the hugely popular talent search of "American Idol." Encouraged by her mother and friend, she then headed for St. Louis, Missouri, the nearest place to attend the audition of the show, thus managed to impress the Idol judge who eventually sent her to Hollywood for the next round. Consistently displayed stunning performances with her uniquely country-infused style, she smoothly made her way to be included in the top 3 on May 11, 2005 then gloriously being voted the fourth winner of "American Idol" two weeks later, beating out her last competitor, southern rocker Bo Bice.

Signed to Arista Records as part of her prize, Carrie quickly released her first single, "Inside Your Heaven," which surprisingly sold for almost 130,000 copies a week after its launching on June 14 besides went straight to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Bounced back with another successful single, "Jesus, Take The Wheel," by October 18, she once again gained an excellent result when launched her anticipated debut album, "Some Hearts," a month later, November 15 to be exact. Not only scored tremendous sale of more than 830,000 copies by December 2005, this piece of work also instantly topped the Billboard Top Country Albums and gained the 2nd position on Billboard Top 200 Album chart at the same time. This album later on scored big in 2007 Country Music Television Awards and Academy of Country Music. For the former, Carrie won Female Video of the Year for the track "Before He Cheats" while for the latter she had better luck by grabbing 2 trophies for Female Vocalist and Album of the Year.

Had her first date when she was 16 years old, the recording artist was later on romantically linked to numbers of famous males following her rising to stardom. Highly publicized for her being reported dating football player Tony Romo, the twosome remained tight-lipped on the persistent rumors until their hand-in-hand appearance at the 2007 Academy of Country Music Awards on May 15th, which made it obvious to everyone that they're dating. However, their romance proven to be short lived as by October the same year the songbird publicly hinted that it's over between her and Romo. And shortly thereafter she was often spotted getting close and personal with actor Chace Crawford of The CW's "Gossip Girl".

Still on the heels of her 2005 album success, Carrie released a new album titled 'Carnival Ride' that hit the stores on October 23, 2007. The following of single-string 'Some Hearts' features a production from her winning team Mark Bright again. On July 31, first single called "So Small" off the new album was released digitally. When music awards season came in the fourth quarter of 2007, Carrie's name was often called as winners. At 41st Annual Country Music Association Awards, she snagged Female Vocalist of the Year and Single of the Year for "Before He Cheats". In just a matter of weeks, she was added her collection of statuettes through the winnings at 35th American Music Awards. Still rooting her work in the debut album, the event gave her 3 nods, one for Favorite Female Country Artist, Favorite Country Album for "Some Hearts" and special honor T-Mobile Award.

Two years after dropping the album, Carrie released her third studio effort, "Play On, which found her devoting more focus than ever to her songwriting abilities. She co-wrote seven of the album's tracks, including the lead single, "Cowboy Casanova". Her fourth studio album, Blown Away, was released in the spring of 2012 and was produced by her longtime collaborator Mark Bright.

Carrie then snatched her first big starring role in 2013, when she signed on to play Maria in a live televised production of ""Sound of Music Live!" on NBC. Later that year, she revealed that she would begin working on a new album sometime in 2014. "After 'The Sound of Music', I feel like I can really buckle down and start working on the next album," she told Billboard.

She finally announced the album in September 2014. However, it wouldn't be a project filled with new material. Titled "Greatest Hits: Decade No. 1", the set will include a number of her hit singles as well as several new songs. A new cut called "Something in the Water" was the first song that arrived ahead of the album's release on December 9. It has topped multiple charts in the U.S. including Billboard's Hot Country Songs and Hot Christian Songs. On Hot 100, it debuted at No. 24 and broke multiple airplay records on Country radio in its first week.