Willing to speak her mind
“The best way to handle fame is to know who you are and what you want to do. And I just want to sing”
Carrie Underwood isn’t backing down. Several days ago, the multi-million selling singer declared her support for same-sex marriage in a newspaper interview. For a country star from the American heartland, it was a controversial step. As she is surely aware, a backlash is building.
“Someone asked me a question and I answered it to the best of my abilities, with a big loving heart,” she says, apparently unfazed by the furore. “I hope more than anything that anyone who reads what I said will realise it was coming from a place of love. No matter what side of the debate you are on, I hope you can respect that.”
She takes issue with the stereotyping of country fans, in America at least, as bit-chompingly ultra conservative. Some are. Many are not. Everybody is different.
“You know, people have a range of opinions. No matter whether you call yourself conservative, liberal, Democrat or Republican. Surely we don’t all have to think the same. We are meant to learn from each other, to be able to talk about things.”
A winner of Simon Cowell’s American Idol in 2005, Underwood is one of those rare reality show graduates who has had a successful post-television career. In the US she has sold 15m records, plays to packed arenas and is reputed to make some $20m annually. With the exception of Taylor Swift, she is possibly the hottest young artist in her chosen genre.
For all that, her home-spun, proudly American sound has largely failed to register abroad. With her new record, Blown Away, she hopes to remedy this. It is her first album to receive an international release. She is excited about taking on new markets.
“It is definitely an adventure,” says Underwood. “It was always the hope to be able to do well everywhere.”
Does she appreciate the depth of the challenge that awaits? Non-Americans have traditionally had an entrenched aversion to the Nashville sound. She is by no means guaranteed to win them over.
“Well, you want to be able to take your music wherever it can travel to. I feel we’ve got a good handle on things in the US. I’m an established artist. I feel comfortable. It’s useful to keep us all interested and see what can happen outside the US.”
Bringing her music to the rest of the world will necessitate some serious downsizing. She will be performing in clubs and theatres instead of stadiums and will have to win over audiences rather than sing to screaming fans.
“It isn’t going to get to a point where I mind,” she says. “It’s fun getting to meet new people, to try new things. I won’t get upset if people don’t know everything about me, or the words to all my songs.”
Among country purists, Underwood is often dismissed as a dealer in sentimental corn-starch. By her usual standards, the new record is surprisingly bleak. The single, ‘Blown Away’, for instance, is about a young woman suffering from depression. It isn’t what you expect from someone in the country pop milieu.
“I’m definitely telling a lot of stories,” says the singer, who is married to ice hockey star Mike Fisher. “When I was making the record it wasn’t about, ‘Well it has to sound like this, or sound like that’. I really wanted there to be no rules, so I could see what might happen.” Above all, she wanted to push boundaries, to rebel, in the nicest possible way, against the public’s perception of her as cherry-pie wholesome.
“I was opening new doors,” she says. “I love the drama of this record. I’ve never had drama like this before.”
Is any of the gritty stuff based on her years growing up in Muskogee, Oklahoma? “When I write I have characters in my head,” she says. “A lot of the stuff in the songs, I’ve never been through. I wouldn’t want to go through it. However, you are thinking about people you know, about the things that have happened to them. There’s always a little personal experience in there, one way or another.”
American Idol is watched by 30m viewers weekly. Winning the competition made Underwood instantly famous. Overnight celebrity was a shock. A one-time pizzeria waitress and journalism student, sometimes she wonders if she’ll ever fully adjust to the spotlight. She still feels startled whenever a paparazzo ambushes her on the way home from Starbucks.
“It’s something I can never quite get used to,” she says. “It is part of you whether you deal with it or not. The best way to handle it is to know who you are and what you want to do. And I just want to sing.”
Fortunately, Nashville hasn’t bought into celebrity culture as fully as other parts of America. Usually, she can go out without being hassled. Day to day, she gets to live a normal life.
Underwood was born in 1983. Her father is a farmer, her mother a primary school teacher. As a child she would sing in church. Aged 14, she auditioned at Capitol Records in Los Angeles. She was going to be offered a record contract but the deal was withdrawn following a management shake-up.
Disillusioned, she gave up on music, became a high-school cheerleader, and studied journalism at Northeastern State University. She was waiting tables when a friend suggested she try out for American Idol.
The day she went to audition in LA, her life changed forever. As with X Factor, winning American Idol is no guarantee of long term popularity. Indeed, Underwood’s continued success places her in a distinct minority of Idol champions. Many have crashed and burned. She is well aware of this.
“It is certainly not a promise of anything,” she says. “It’s a chance, an open door. After that, I tried to make the right decisions. I got lucky, I think. You never know what is going to happen.”
What are her memories if Simon Cowell? Was he as much a moustache twirling villain off-screen as on? “He was relatively nice to me. He is paid to give an opinion. He does that well. I wouldn’t vilify him for doing his job.”
* Blown Away is out now
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
