Carrie Underwood: 2022 Was Another Amazing Year For Her

Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

December 12th, 2022 2:24 PM

Carrie Underwood wrapped 2022 on a high note, setting the stage for another busy year in 2023. She closes out the year as Billboard’s Top Country Female 2022, Country Aircheck’s #1 Top Female of the Year, and MediaBase’s Most Played Female Country Artist this year.

In 2022, Carrie continued her career-long winning streak with multiple awards and honors, beginning with her eighth GRAMMY Award for Best Roots Gospel Album (My Savior), continuing with her 16th ACM Award for Single of the Year (“If I Didn’t Love You” with Jason Aldean), 24th and 25th CMT Music Awards for Collaborative Video of the Year Award and Video of the Year (“If I Didn’t Love You” with Jason Aldean), holding the record for the most award wins ever for the show. Underwood ended the year by winning the People’s Choice Award for The Country Artist of 2022, marking her 10th win for the fan-voted awards.

Other highlights of Carrie’s year include:

• The release of her album, Denim & Rhinestones, in June, marked her 10th consecutive career Top 10 debut on the Billboard Top 200 chart for all genres. Since its release, the album has also remained in the top 20 Current Country Albums sales chart.
• She celebrated the launch of her much-anticipated album with “The Denim & Rhinestones Experience,” a one-of-a-kind immersive interactive experience for fans at Nashville’s historic Bell Tower in June. Denim & Rhinestones has amassed over 290M Global streams and nearly 120k Global album sales to date.
• Her first single from the album, “Ghost Story,” is RIAA-certified gold. Underwood showcased the single in a broadcast premiere performance on the GRAMMY Awards telecast.
• Her follow-up single, “Hate My Heart,” was #1 most added at country radio twice (non-consecutive weeks) and continues to rise the charts with more than 10.5M Global streams to date. Carrie co-wrote “Hate My Heart” with frequent collaborators Hillary Lindsey and David Garcia and hit artist/songwriter Hardy.
• In April, she performed at the Stagecoach Festival stage for the fourth time and with a surprise performance with Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose. She surprised fans again when she joined Guns N’ Roses onstage for two songs during each of their shows at the U.K.’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in July.
• In September, Carrie returned for her 10th season as the voice of primetime television’s #1 program, NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
• Underwood kicked off her new 43-city U.S. arena tour, “The Denim & Rhinestones Tour,” on October 15 with a sold-out show in Greenville, South Carolina, continuing through Spring 2023, with upcoming stops including New York’s Madison Square Garden, Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, and L.A.’s Crypto.com Arena.
• On December 1, the first anniversary of the debut of her hit production, “Reflection: The Las Vegas Residency” at Resorts World Theatre, Carrie announced her return to Las Vegas will commence on June 21, 2023, after she wraps “The Denim & Rhinestones Tour” in March. Tickets for 18 new show dates for “Reflection,” produced by Concerts West/ AEG Presents, are on sale now.

22 Carrie Underwood Songs That Shine Like Rhinestones

• 22. “I Told You So” (featuring Randy Travis) (2009)

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  Randy Travis first recorded this song for his 1983 "Live at the Nashville Palace" under his stage name at the time, "Randy Ray." Travis re-recorded it for his Always & Forever album and released it as a single. It was a big hit. Carrie released a cover version of the song on her 2007 album, Carnival Rida and she later did this duet version with Randy.

• 21. “Drinking Alone” (2019)

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  A powerful song that Underwood sings on stage, usually in a suit and hat. The song was written by Carrie and her co-producer David Garcia and Brett James. The song centers around a bar encounter between a woman and a man after their respective relationships have just ended.

• 20. “Little Toy Guns” (2015)

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  This song was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at the 58th Grammy Awards. The video stars Grace Rundhaug, who starred alongside Underwood in “The Sound of Music Live!” television special, as a girl who escapes her parents' fighting by mentally transporting herself to a "storybook land" where she plays a mythical hero and reunites her captive parents.
• 19. “Ghost Story” (2022)

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  The first single from her "Denim & Rhinestones" album. She performed the song live for the first time at the 64th Grammy Awards, held in Las Vegas, on April 3, 2022. On her 2022/2023 Denim & Rhinestones Tour," and in the music video Carrie rides a swing high in the air while she sings.

• 18. “Temporary Home” (2009)

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  Carrie was inspired by the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Pastor Rick Warren, who wrote that this world is a "temporary home" and that when we leave here, it is not the end of existence. Underwood said, "I thought of a little boy in a foster situation, and he knows where he's going, and the place where he is isn't where he should be, but he'll get there someday." The song was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards.

• 17. “Hallelujah” (with John Legend) (2020)

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  A beautiful blend of two amazing voices. Carrie said of the song, co-written by Legend, "I was deep into making the album, and this one kind of came in. He sent it to us kind of at the end. It was like, 'Well, I love the song. I feel like this is a puzzle piece I didn't know was missing, but now that I've heard it, I have to have it. And so, we just put the ask back, 'Thank you for sending, do you want to sing a part with me, too?'"
• 16. “All-American Girl” (2008)

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  The song centers around a "beautiful, wonderful, perfect all-American girl." The first verse tells the story of a father hoping for a baby boy to continue his legacy, but "when the nurse came in with a little pink blanket, all those big dreams changed." Throughout the video, Carrie appears as an American Olympic swimmer, an artist/painter, a nurse, a photographer, a cowgirl, a waitress, a ballerina, a clothing designer, a chef, a cheerleader, a veterinarian, a beauty queen, a mother, a football player, a police officer, a teacher, a graduate, a college student, a bride, a flight attendant, a news anchor, an astronaut, a firefighter, a soldier, a surgeon, a welder, a scientific chemist, a car thief and the President of the United States.

• 15. “Cowboy Casanova” (2009)

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  A massive hit for Underwood that sold over 2 million digital downloads. In an interview with CMT, Carrie said of the song, "I think to every woman, this song would be telling a story about someone they know or met or has tried to pick them up in a bar. We're not trashing this guy; we’re just warning these other girls about him."

• 14. “Undo It” (2010)

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  A super catchy song. Underwood performed the song at the 2010 “American Idol” finale and the 2010 “CMT Music Awards.” Carrie said of co-writing the song, "It was something that it didn't take that long to write, and it's so much fun to sing on stage, and people get into it."
• 13. “Hate My Heart” (2022)

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  Underwood co-wrote "Hate My Heart," which is told from the point of view of a character who is regretful over her breakup, wishing she could move on. She said in an interview about the song, "'Hate My Heart' was definitely part of my desire to have fun on this album. I wanted songs that would be exciting to perform live and would fill up an arena, and that's exactly what we're about to do with The Denim & Rhinestones Tour. This one is definitely going to get everyone up on their feet and having a good time."

• 12. “The Champion” (featuring Ludacris) (2018)

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  A song that she showcased on her “Cry Pretty Tour” by bringing different people on stage from the audience to sing it each night. When she played her home state of Oklahoma, she got her own mother on stage to sing it with her. The song was recorded as an opening theme for NBC Sports' television broadcast of Super Bowl LII.

• 11. “Good Girl” (2012)

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  "Good Girl" is about Underwood warning a good girl about her ex-boyfriend, saying that he is no good and that she is better off without him. The video features Underwood playing a "Good Girl" and another girl trying to persuade her character that the man she is with is no good. It won Video of the Year at the 2012 CMT Music Awards.
• 10. “Church Bells” (2016)

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  "Church Bells," tells the story of Jenny, a poor girl who marries a wealthy oilman. However, she soon discovers that her new husband is an abusive alcoholic. Jenny slips an untraceable poison into his drink and kills him. Carrie said of the song's heroine, “She’s young, she’s pretty, she’s poor, doing what she can to survive. (She) meets a man that has a lot of wealth and is supposed to take care of her.”

• 9. “Last Name” (2008)

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  At the 51st Grammy Awards, the song won Underwood her third consecutive Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Rolling Stone picked the track as their favorite in a review, saying the song was "the most fun," where she gets wasted and runs off to Vegas with a guy she doesn't know.

• 8. “If I Didn’t Love You” (with Jason Aldean) (2021)

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  Carrie made the song's debut performance along with Aldean at the 2021 CMA Awards in Nashville.
• 7. “Somethin’ Bad” (2014)

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  A song that showed the world that Underwood and Miranda Lambert sound great together. "Somethin' Bad" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, becoming Carrie’s thirteenth number one and Lambert's fifth. The song is the first number one by teamed-up solo women in more than two decades on this chart.

• 6. “Something in the Water” (2014)

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  During the performance of this song in Carrie’s 2021 / 2022 Las Vegas show, she stands and sings in front of a giant wall of falling water. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance.

• 5. “The Fighter” (2017)

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  This duet with Keith Urban (from his ‘Ripchord’ album) won the ACM’s Vocal Event of The Year in 2018.
• 4. “Two Black Cadillacs” (2012)

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  The song’s video draws inspiration from Stephen King's novel “Christine” and shows how the wife and mistress kill the cheating husband with a black Cadillac. It was nominated for Video of the Year at the 2013 Academy of Country Music Awards. Underwood has performed "Two Black Cadillacs" at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.

• 3. “Before He Cheats” (2006)

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  An early hit for Carrie, at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, she won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, and the song's writers won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

• 2. “Jesus, Take the Wheel” (2005)

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  The song that brought Underwood to the dance, as they say. Her first number one song, "Jesus, Take the Wheel," won the Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, and it won Single of the Year at the 2005 Academy of Country Music Awards.
• 1.”Blown Away” (2012)

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  What a powerful story song “Blown Away” is. It won several awards, including two Grammy Awards, for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Carrie said upon hearing the song the first time, "I listened to it on my crappy computer speakers, and then I had to go find my headphones because as soon as I listened to a few bars, I had to listen more closely, and I got chills. I remember where I was when I heard it and called my manager, Ann, and I was like, 'Do not let anyone else have this song! It’s my song.'”

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Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

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Carrie Underwood