9781422273227

CHAPTER 1

A STAR

IS BORN

Following her big win on season four of American Idol , Underwood toured the country performing with her fellow Idol contestants. The tour stopped in Oklahoma, where she was in high demand for interviews with the local press as the hometown girl.

“I’ve definitely had some luck on my side but there’s been a whole lot of hard work too. I got my opportunity and I took it.”

Underwood recognized the opportunity winning the show had given her and she ran with it. Just three weeks after the Idol finale, her single “InsideYour Heaven” was released. It was the first single by a country artist to ever debut at the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. This foreshadowed the release of her debut full-length album in November 2005. Entitled Some Hearts , Underwood’s album took the country by storm. Not only did it come in at the top of the Billboard country album chart, it also had the best first week of any country album since the advent of electronic sales tracking. By the end of 2006, Some Hearts was the best-selling album of any kind in the entire country. The fourth single “Before He Cheats” was released

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a star is born