Crazy dreams

Day 12 - Write about your favorite musical artist's life story. 

I've stood at the bottom of some walls/ I though I couldn't climb/ I felt like Cinderella at the ball/ Just running out of time/ So I know how it feels to be afraid/ and think that it's all gonna slip away/ Hold on, hold on

Carrie Underwood - Crazy dreams

Ever since spring of my 8th grade year, when American Idol first debuted, I have been in love with the idea that one show can make a small town girl go from nothing to instant celebrity status. Introducing Carrie Marie Underwood, winner of season four on May 25, 2005. For Underwood, hearing the words "Welcome to Hollywood" would be the first time she would be able to venture west from her small town home of Checotah, Oklahoma (current population  3,481). Being the youngest daughter of two older sisters, she was raised in a home where her father worked in a sawmill and her mother, an elementary teacher. She grew up singing in her church, Free Will Baptist Church, at local town events, her high school choir, and she even performed in Northeastern State Universities shows. She graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a bachelors degree in communication, just one year after her victorious win on the AI stage.  In her hometown, Underwood was a local celebrity, little did she know that within one year of her 2004 audition, Underwood would reach world-wide celebrity status. 

Carrie's vocals are undeniably the best vocals to ever grace the American Idol stage, but it wasn't just her pipes that sent her to the finals, it was her sweet spirit, love for music and faith in God. She stole the judges hearts as well as those in American she during her performance of "Alone" by Heart, judge Simon Cowell predicted Underwood as the winner as well as the highest selling artist of all AI winners. 

For Carrie, American Idol was just the start of her career. After appearing on AI, she returned numerous times singing for 'Idol Gives Back,' joining other fellow contestants as well as shocking the audience with a surprise duet with Randy Travis. Her debut album 'Some Hearts' was the biggest debut country album since 1991 and won her countless awards including a Grammy, Best Female Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Video of the Year and many more. After her second album, "Carnival Ride" debuted, Carrie was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry which, for country music fans, is the highest honor possible, also making her the youngest member. Now onto her third album, "Play On," Carrie continues to own the charts, win all the awards and still manages to do it with class, dignity and humility. 

The thing about Carrie that intrigues me, is her relentlessness to be the absolute best, without jeopardizing who she is. She proves that through hard work, determination and love for the music, anything is possible. She deserves everything that's been given to her, I've been a fan since the beginning and I'll be a fan until her last album. 

Whitney and I at Carrie Underwoods concert in May 2010.