Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983 in Checotah, Oklahoma) is an American country singer who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol.

She was born and raised on a farm in Checotah, and graduated from Checotah High School in 2001 as salutatorian. Underwood attended Northeastern State University, where she majored in mass communication and is a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. She also competed in numerous beauty pageants at the university and was selected as Miss NSU runner-up in 2004.

Underwood's musical influences include pop, but are predominantly country; she stated during Idol auditions that her favorite singer is Martina McBride. On the April 20 elimination show, Underwood demonstrated her ability to play the guitar. She can also play piano and yodel, the latter of which was demonstrated on the Tonight Show the night after she won.

On the March 22 show, after a performance of Heart's "Alone", Simon Cowell said, "Carrie, you're not just the girl to beat, you're the person to beat. I will make a prediction, not only will you win this competition, but you will sell more records than any other previous 'Idol' winner." He went onto say on the March 30 show that she has the "it factor" that will make her a star.

On her last song of the night in the final two, Carrie's spectacular performace of "Angels Brought Me Here" made Simon say, "I think you've done enough to win the competition." On May 25, 2005, she became the fourth winner of American Idol, beating Southern rocker Bo Bice, and she joins Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken as the only contestants who have never been one of the "bottom three" singers during any week's results.

As part of her title, Underwood gained a recording contract with Arista Records; her first single, "Inside Your Heaven", was released on June 14, 2005. The single debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with first-week sales of 129,610 singles (#1) and 39,024 digitial downloads (#4). (Technically, this made her the first country artist to reach #1 since Lonestar in 2000, and the first ever to debut there, but "Inside Your Heaven" is considered more of a generic pop record than a country record; indeed, it has been shunned by country radio.

Underwood performed a well-received "The Star Spangled Banner" before Game 4 of the 2005 NBA Finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. In 2005, she starred in ads for Hershey's Chocolate. The commercials have Underwood singing Hershey jingles like the jingles for Hershey's, Kit Kat and Almond Joy. She is also wearing vintage Hershey T-shirts that feature Hershey's, Almond Joy, Kit Kat, Reeses and other chocolate brand logos. The T-Shirts are now available to buy with proofs of purchase. Underwood is also the latest spokesperson for Skechers shoes, following in the footsteps of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

Underwood's first single, "Jesus Take The Wheel" was made available for radio airplay on October 18, 2005. It received so much airplay that it debuted at #39 on the Billboard Country Chart in its first week, setting a record. It is currently ranked at #8 in its seventh week on that chart. The single also debuted at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100 where it is currently peaked at #40

Her initial album release, titled Some Hearts, hit store shelves on November 15, 2005. On that same day, she presented an award and performed "Jesus, Take The Wheel" at the 39th Country Music Association in New York City. When the week's sales figures were tabulated, Some Hearts entered the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart with 315,000 copies sold. The large first week sales of Some Hearts made it #1 on the Billboard Country Top Albums chart and the biggest debut of any country artist since the advent of the SoundScan system in 1990.

Only four Weeks after Some Hearts was released, it had gone platinum in the US for shipments in excess of 1 million, which is a very rare acheivement for a debut artist's CD. Carrie's record company also confirmed that at least 1.4 million units had been shipped by December 15th.