Fort Worth Star-Telegram/mctThe American Idol 2005 winner is getting ready to release her sophomore album. Carrie Underwood’s second album, Carnival Ride, will be released on Oct. 23. The first single “So Small” has already topped the charts and broken records.
“So Small” entered Billboard’s digital song chart at No.6 in early Sept., with 70,808 downloads. The song has earned the greatest debuting digital track by a country artist. The only country artist to top Underwood’s records is Carrie Underwood herself with her edition of the Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand By You.”
Underwood was more involved with Carnival Ride in the songwriting process than on her debut album. She co-wrote the chart topper “So Small” as well as 18 out of the 22 songs on the album.
“You step onto this ride called life, and it’s a crazy thing you don’t know anything about, but you get on it anyway. You do what you can to lean different directions to try and get it to go where you want it to go, but you can’t stop it – it just keeps moving. That’s why ‘Carnival Ride’ works as my album title because it describes the wonderful craziness that I’ve been through over the past couple years,” said Underwood in a interview with an Country Standard Time.
Her debut album, “Some Hearts,” went six times platinum and is going to be a hard act to follow. “Some Hearts”, the best selling album of any American Idol contestant. The debut album is the best-selling, single-disc country album by a solo female in the new millennium. When it entered The Billboard 200 list it came in second behind Madonna’s “Confession on a Dance Floor.” The first single to be release off of “Some Hearts” charted number one on the US Billboard Hot 100.
The follow up single “Jesus Take The Wheel” was number one on the Hot Country Songs Chart, showing that Underwood is winning over fans from all areas of music. The debut album had a balance between country and mainstream pop music; fans will have to wait to see what angle Underwood took with “Carnival Ride.”
Carrie Underwood is the first American Idol winner to obtain rewards at the three major music award shows in the same season. The fourth season winner took home one American Music Awards, five Billboard Music Award and two Grammy Awards. This Nov. Underwood is up forsecond Female Vocalist of The Year at the CMT awards.
This summer Carrie Underwood launched her first solo tour. The tour ran from this May until October and proved once again that she is the most successful American Idol winner, having the majority of the shows selling out. Kelly Clarkson, first winner of American Idol, had her original summer tour suddenly cancelled due to various conflicts. Since Clarkson has changed management her sound of music has switched from pop rock to a more country feel. Some critics are calling Clarkson the new Carrie Underwood, following the successful footsteps of Underwood.
“I’m not a fan of American Idol but I love Carrie Underwood. I listened to her all summer long and can’t wait for the new CD to be out!” sophomore business major Erin Peters said.
