The one and only Carrie Underwood.
On Monday, Carrie Underwood attended the inauguration of President Trump to perform “America The Beautiful,” which ended up being a stunning a capella performance after some technical difficulties delayed the start.
Her initial decision to be there was of course met with a ton of backlash from some fans who didn’t like the fact that she was lending her talents to a President they don’t like or didn’t vote for, but Carrie, who has generally been pretty quiet on politics, responded with class, saying in a simple statement that she was “honored” to be asked to perform for the President and felt humbled to “answer the call” in an effort to display unity:
“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event. I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”
Hard to argue with that, but of course, people did. But notably, Carrie didn’t endorse anyone in the 2024 presidential election or reveal who she voted for.
Carrie handled the situation at the inauguration like a total pro, and after quite a few moments of waiting and realizing there was probably going to be no music, and millions of people were watching on TV at home, she told one of the staff members she would “just sing it,” and she SANG it.
Carrie crushed it. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/7C3Db9Lv4M
— Whiskey Riff (@WhiskeyRiff) January 20, 2025
The performance was met with widespread praise, notably for how gracefully she handled the situation, and also of course how great she sounded. Well, unless you’re bitter Ariana Grande…
And it appears as though the millions of people around the world are diving back into some of Carrie’s music after watching her earlier this week, as three of her albums have reappeared back in the top 10 on the iTunes country albums chart, with two of them currently sitting in the top two spots.
Her phenomenal 2021 My Savior gospel album is at #1 right now, and her 2014 Greatest Hits: Decade #1 is at #2:
Her 2012 Blown Away album is currently #9:
In total, she has a whopping EIGHT albums in the Top 100.
Good for her… I mean, I would imagine this is the kind of thing you hope for, or at least expect, when you sign up to perform at such a massive, worldwide event, and she certainly deserves it after everything she went through in putting herself out there for political scrutiny and then some… from the backlash all the way through the technical difficulties and near-derailment of her performance.
While some of Carrie’s newer music over the last several years hasn’t exactly been my taste (leans too far to the pop side of country music), I was a huge fan of her back in her American Idol days and early years in country music, and she’s put out some absolute heaters over the years like “Before He Cheats,” “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Cowboy Casanova” and so many more. Obviously, she’s one of, if not the, best vocalists in country music and has been for the better part of 20 years.
Without a doubt, my favorite thing she’s ever done is the aforementioned My Savior album, which is full of classic hymns Carrie sang growing up and is honestly perfect from top to bottom… I think it was one of my most-listened-to albums that year, and I still go back to it often.
I would love another edition of this one day with even more of her favorite hymns… I’ll leave a few of my favorites below, definitely check them out if you missed it when this gorgeous record came out.
“Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus”
“Because He Lives”
“The Old Rugged Cross”