Nashville, TN – More than a decade into her career, 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville superstar Carrie Underwood remains a consistent fan-favorite, as the CMA Entertainer of the Year nominee becomes the RIAA’s highest certified country album artist to debut this century, amid a wave of new RIAA album certifications across her entire studio catalog.
On the heels of three back-to-back #1 singles, Underwood’s 2015 Storyteller album is now certified Platinum while each of her first four studio albums add Multi-Platinum certifications. These include Blown Away (now 2x Multi-Platinum), Play On (3x Multi-Platinum), Carnival Ride (4x Multi-Platinum), and Underwood’s blockbuster debut, Some Hearts, now at 8x Multi-Platinum.
Of all country albums now RIAA certified at 8 million or more, Underwood’s 2005 debut stands as the youngest in the tally, also earning her the distinction of the highest album certification of any country artist to emerge since 2000.
Underwood already holds the distinction of being the current Top Country Artist (male or female) on RIAA’s Digital Single Ranking with 28 million (also making her among the Top 5 females in the history of the RIAA’s Digital Single Program, across all genres).
Having played to more than 800,000 fans so far since its launch, Underwood is currently headlining The Storyteller Tour - Stories in the Round through the end of November, including tomorrow night’s sold out show at Madison Square Garden. From there the tour will stop for shows in Albany, NY and Uncasville, CT before taking a brief break from the tour for Carrie to return to Nashville where, on November 2nd, she’ll join Brad Paisley as the CMA Awards co-host for a ninth consecutive year. The 50th Annual CMA Awards airs live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena at 8 PM/ET on ABC. This year, Underwood garnered her first nomination for the coveted CMA Entertainer of the Year award, as well as nominations for Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year for Storyteller, and Musical Event of the Year with Keith Urban for “The Fighter.”
About Carrie Underwood:
Carrie Underwood emerged from the promise of her 2005 American Idol win to become a true multi-format, multi-media superstar, spanning achievements in music, television, and film. A seven-time GRAMMY® Award winner, she has amassed over 100 major honors, sold 58 million records worldwide, and recorded 24 #1 singles, 13 of which she co-wrote, with a catalog of songs that have been streamed more than 1.9 billion times worldwide. The first female artist to be twice named the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year, Underwood was recognized as Pollstar’s top female country touring artist for her headlining tours in 2008, 2010, and 2012. Her first four studio albums, Some Hearts, Carnival Ride, Play On, and Blown Away – each certified multi-Platinum, and each an American Music Awards winner as Country Album of the Year – tallied an incredible 38 weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. In 2013, Underwood starred as Maria von Trapp in NBC’s three-hour holiday blockbuster, the Emmy®-winning The Sound of Music Live!, whose airings attracted 44 million viewers. In December of 2014, the Grand Ole Opry member released her first hits collection, Greatest Hits: Decade #1. Billboard’s best-selling hits album of 2015, the chart-topping package was certified Platinum in January of 2016, making Underwood the only country artist – and one of only six all-genre artists – to launch an album to Platinum success since the time of its release in December of 2014. Celebrating her first 10 years of music, the collection’s 25 songs included two new #1 hits co-written by Underwood: the Platinum-certified, GRAMMY-winning “Something in the Water,” as well as the Gold-certified “Little Toy Guns.” This year is her fourth season as the voice of primetime television’s #1 program, Sunday Night Football, and she will return for a ninth consecutive year as co-host of the CMA Awards. Underwood’s chart-topping, Gold-certified fifth studio album, Storyteller, has produced three #1 singles with “Smoke Break,” “Heartbeat,” and “Church Bells.”
