Louisa
Well-known member
Article taken from Australian newspaper. Text copied via PressReader. Scan by me.
Carrie keeps it real
Amid the whirlwind of a superstar life, Carrie Underwood maintains the honesty that has helped many of her fans, writes Cameron Adams
COUNTRY superstar Carrie Underwood is the first to admit she’s a peoplepleaser. It’s worked very well so far. Since being discovered on American Idol in 2004 she’s sold 65 million records, earning close to $200 million over her career. There’ve been no scandals, she’s achieved fame and success on her talent alone and country is such a loyal genre that her popularity shows no sign of waning.
Cry Pretty is her sixth album, her first since leaving post her Idol label and signing to Capitol Nashville. It entered the US chart at No.1 with over 250,000 first week sales — her fourth American chart topper.
Underwood, 35, was instantly relieved as it’s her most personal record to date, full of songs in the first person.
“It’s hard putting yourself out there in any capacity,” Underwood says. “That could lead to people not liking it, therefore translating into people not liking you. I’m someone who wants people to like them, that’s just my personality. I’m not one of those ‘I don’t care what people think’ people. I do care! It’s a vulnerable position when you are writing things in first person, you want people to get where you’re coming from.”
She admits the need to be liked means she doesn’t check her social media, taking a post and run approach. “That’s a slippery slope. You just don’t look. Live your life, take your pictures, put them out there, hope people like them and not look at the comments.”
Cry Pretty’s latest single Love Wins has been embraced by Underwood’s LGBT fanbase as an anthem. Underwood, unaware “Love wins’’ has been the slogan for many marriage equality campaigns, is merely happy the song resonates without singling out any particular sections of society.
“When we were writing the song we didn’t want to make it about any one thing. That’s the thing about music, you want people, wherever they are in their lives, to find themselves in the things you’re singing about. We wanted to be careful making it just about love and positivity and whatever it is in your life that applies to you. I look out at the audience and see such diversity, from toddlers to grandparents, I’ve had people over 90 in my meet and greets.”
“IT’S IMPORTANT TO LIVE A LIFE AND REMEMBER WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE HUMAN’’
She’s similarly vague about The Bullet, one of the few songs she didn’t write, which investigates the aftermath of victims of gun crime.
“You want to sing things that will make people think and feel. That was so well written, speaking about the people left behind.’’
Underwood deliberately — and cleverly — shies away from her own thoughts on America’s love of guns, or the state of American politics.
“I’ve never been an outwardly political person. Some of my best friends believe different things to me in so many different ways but we love each other so we can talk about them. I can try to understand where they’re coming from, they can try to understand where I’m coming from. But you don’t get that in a newspaper article or a tweet. So you just don’t go there.”
Underwood has opened up more than usual about her personal life. She gave birth to son Isaiah (with former ice hockey player husband Mike Fisher) in February 2015 but revealed last month that not only was she pregnant with her second child, but she and Fisher suffered three miscarriages over the last 18 months.
She said she felt she needed to be honest with her fans, who thought the “pain’’ she alluded to was a fall last year that left her with a broken wrist and facial cuts that was causing her to stay out of the public eye.
“With making this album and writing some of the songs, some of the things that were coming out in the lyrics I kinda needed to explain or else people wouldn’t know where it was coming from. I tried to be vague about it for a while, people assumed I was talking about when I fell.That wasn’t what I was talking about when I said last year was a hard year. I needed to get that out there otherwise some of the songs might not make sense to people.’’
The country star, 35, says her honesty has turned out helping others. “I’ve got messages from people that I know, people in my life who said ‘We’ve been going through the same thing’ and I didn’t even know it. It’s been healing, for me, and for other women that I know, I’ve gotten closer to people around me through that.”
Underwood spent almost a year working on Cry Pretty, a luxury for many in the fastpaced world of modern music.
“It was nice. I’ve always had a little more time between my albums and tours than most artists do. This life I live when I’m working, it’s not real life. We live on a tour bus, travelling on planes, having photo shoots, people are doing my make-up. That’s just not real.
“I always find it super important to live some life in between or else what am I going to write about? Nobody can relate to this life, because this is weird. It’s important to live a life and feel settled and remember what it’s like to be human. I cherish that time in between albums.”
She’ll have her baby early next year, then start the Cry Pretty tour in the US in May, with tentative plans to be in Australia late 2019, depending on how she juggles family with touring.
“My son turned 11 months when we started our last tour. I have a lot of support, that’s the number one thing, but it’s going to be hard. I’m not good at letting other people help me. I’ll get off the stage late ... and I’ll go to bed late, I’ll wake up and have a baby to feed and take care of. I won’t ask anyone else to do it because that’s my job. but it’s going to be hard touring with two kids but we’ll make it through. ”
