Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is a country music singer/songwriter from Checotah, Oklahoma who gained fame after winning American Idol in 2005. Besides singing, she can also yodel as well as play both guitar and piano.

Prior to appearing on Idol, she released three independent albums between 1996 and 2002, featuring mostly Country songs but also a few Pop classics. She also appeared as an opening act for such artists as Diamond Rio, The Wilkinson's, Exile, Gene Watson, Billy Hoffman and Earl Thomas Conley. At 13 she almost signed with Capital Records but the deal fell through at the last moment.

Her first major-label album release, entitled Some Hearts, hit store shelves on November 15, 2005. The large first week sales of Some Hearts made it #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and the biggest debut of any country artist since the advent of the SoundScan system in 1990. As of June 2007, the album had been certified 6x platinum. The followup, Carnival Ride, was released on 23rd October 2007 and has been certified 2x platinum by the RIAA.

Every single she has released since Idol (Inside Your Heaven, Jesus Take The Wheel, Don't Forget To Remember Me, Before He Cheats, Wasted, So Small, All-American Girl and Last Name) has gone to #1 on the Country charts. She has also won a string of CMA, ACM, Billboard, Teen Choice, CMT, NARM, GMA, Dove, Inspirational Country, AMA, People's Choice and Grammy awards.

Her concert performances are notable for her covers of such songs as Jolene (performed as a medley with Before He Cheats) and several Guns & Roses songs (Patience, Sweet Child Of Mine, November Rain and Paradise City). In her first tour she also performed acoustic arrangements of songs such as Jesus Take The Wheel, Inside Your Heaven and Don't Forget To Remember Me.

Carrie has always expressed a great love for country music and has made numerous appearances on the Grand Ole Opry singing such classics as Stand By Your Man and How Great Thou Art. In March 2007 after performing Randy Travis' I Told You So, Randy made a surprise appearance (saying, "That's a better performance than I will ever do of that song") and invited her to become a member of the Opry. Garth Brooks did the honors, and Carrie was inducted on May 16th, 2008.Then, to top it all off, Vince Gill sang a duet with her, performing Jesus Take The Wheel.