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Carrie Underwood on Grammys, American Idol and Crossing Over
She Visits Pressroom After Winning Grammy for "Blown Away"
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood collected her sixth career Grammy on Sunday night (Feb. 10) in Los Angeles, and she dropped by the backstage pressroom to chat with reporters shortly after her win.

"It's always fun coming to the Grammys," she said. "You know, your first ones are always crazy exciting and nerve-wracking. You're like, 'How did I land here? How did I get here?' I feel a little more comfortable just being in the audience and sitting and taking it all in. You always look for new ways to make your performances stand out and new things to do. I feel really happy right now. Not that I haven't felt happy at previous Grammys, but I feel like it all really went off well, so I'm very happy."

Underwood won a Grammy for her performance of "Blown Away" in the category of best country solo performance. The song's writers, Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins, also won a Grammy in the category of best country song. Underwood sang the smash hit on the show with one of the night's most memorable gowns, which captured an array of digital special effects.

Fielding a question about how the dress actually worked, Underwood replied, "I'm so glad everybody's been asking me that! They can do a lot of amazing things with projectors these days. We had a dress specially made -- so it would be a dress, but it would have a nice projection screen. I said I should take that home, and we can watch movies on it at home. 'You want to watch movies on my dress?' Yeah, they can do all that stuff. I know I had a certain place to stand, and they had to really make sure it wasn't going off around me. It took a lot of precision. I've got a lot of great people."

In addition, Underwood told reporters that she's keeping up with American Idol this season and had particular praise for the new panel of judges.

"I watch every opportunity that I possibly can. I've think I've missed only one episode this season so far. And I'm really mad at myself. I couldn't watch it but, anyway, that's a whole different story," she said. "And not just American Idol. There are a lot of shows that are like that -- that give people like me opportunities to do something they never thought they could do before. I think the judges are doing a really great job. I had a chance to talk to Keith [Urban] about it a little earlier. I think he's having a great time, and he's excited to do something really different. Obviously, not many people get to do something like that. It's cool to see them, and there's an interesting balance that's going on, on the judge's panel, but it makes it interesting."

At the end of her time in the pressroom, Underwood deflected any speculation that she's interested in a pop career.

"I'm still in the country world," she said, responding to a reporter's question with a laugh. "I love country music. That's what I grew up [on]. I mean, I grew up listening to everything, but that's always been what I sang. If I was ever going to sing anywhere growing up, I would either sing gospel music or country music. And the two really go hand in hand quite a bit. Especially if you look in my albums, the two really go hand in hand. I sing a lot of faith-based songs."

She continued, "I love that world. I love the people in it. I love making country music that I feel like anybody can get into, no matter what kind of genre you listen to. I just want to make good songs, sing good songs, write good songs. And if it ever crosses over, it just does it on its own. And I'm so happy about that -- that we can give country music to a different audience. But I don't think I could ever see myself making a pop album."

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