Carrie Underwood
Awards and achievements
Regarded as one of the most successful artists in any musical genre, Underwood has sold 70 million records worldwide, as of 2019[update]. The Recording Industry Association of America recognizes Underwood as the fifth highest-certified female artist (all-genre) and the third highest-certified country artist of all time on its Top Artists (Digital Songs) raking, with 41.5 million certified units. Underwood is also the highest-certified country album artist to debut in the 21st century. In the US, she has sold 20 million albums and over 40 million singles, making her the best-selling artist of the American Idol franchise, with Billboard calling her the ultimate Idol success story. Forbes has declared Underwood the most successful American Idol winner of all time, with more albums sold and more revenue generated than any of the other contestants in the show's 15 seasons. Underwood had a fast commercial impact on the music industry, with her debut album, Some Hearts, becoming the fastest-selling debut country album in the history of the SoundScan era, the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, the best-selling Country album of the last 14 years, and the best-selling album by an American Idol alum in the US. With her debut single, "Inside Your Heaven", she also broke Billboard chart history as the first country music artist ever to debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and the song became the first song from a country artist to go to No. 1 on the Hot 100 since country group Lonestar's "Amazed" did so in 2000. "Inside Your Heaven" is the only single by a solo country artist in the 2000 decade to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart. With the singles from her second album, Carnival Ride, she became the first female country artist since Shania Twain in 1995 to pull four number-one's from one album. In 2010, with the singles of her third album, Play On, she achieved ten career number-one singles on the Hot Country Songs, an achievement for which she was named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the female country artist with the most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart (since accurate sales records were introduced in the US in 1991), tied with Reba McEntire. With such a feat, she became the only female artist in country music history to have eleven consecutive top two singles; at that time, she had twelve official country singles: ten number-ones. She also became the first woman to score ten number-ones on such a chart since Rosanne Cash in 1988. She then broke and expanded her Guinness Book record by scoring four more number-one singles on the Hot Country Songs between 2011 and 2014, for a total of fourteen number-ones. She is also the woman with the most number-ones in the history of the Billboard Country Airplay chart, having had 15 leaders.
Carrie Underwood-79