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On 2007’s follow-up, Carnival Ride, platinum tunes like “So Small”, “Last Name” and Randy Travis duet “I Told You So” exemplified her high-gloss approach: songs that emphasise self-confidence, hair-metal guitar sheen, dance-pop synths, and arena beats. With powerful pipes and farmgirl charm, she handily won the show’s 2005 season, while her Some Hearts debut that same year further defined her as a forceful performer with vocal range and athletic theatricality. Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1983, Underwood dreamt of becoming a singer but decided on a more practical path-a communications degree-before auditioning for American Idol as a last-ditch effort.
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Maybe that’s because she took her time stepping to the plate. Underwood was relatable yet unusually composed from the start, a middle-class woman singing about being romantically wronged or living hand-to-mouth who never comes undone, even with a Louisville Slugger in hand. And amazingly enough, when the country star vandalised a vehicle in the video for 2005’s quintuple-platinum “Before He Cheats”, it wasn’t righteous rage she projected-it was pure poise. Carrie Underwood took a bat to a scuzzball boyfriend’s prized ride more than a decade before Beyoncé did in Lemonade.
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