Country singer Carrie Underwood sung her way into the hearts of America when she was crowned the new American Idol in May 2005. “Not only will you win this show, you will sell more records than any other precious Idol winner,” said judge Simon Cowell after Underwood, 24, performed Heart’s hit song “Alone.”

Looks like Simon Cowell is a psychic after all because Underwood has done exactly what he predicted. Her debut album “Some Hearts” was released on November 15, 2005 and sold 315,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling debut country album in the history of the SoundScan era. It has sold nearly 6 million copes to date.

“Some Hearts” has become the best-selling, single-disc country album by a solo female in the new millennium, but it’s also the best-selling, single-disc country album by a solo artist, male or female, in the last six years (Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits album that was released in November 2000).

Even though her debut album was released two years ago, “Some Hearts” is still ranked as 2007’s top-selling country album (“Carnival Ride” will likely overtake the title in the next several weeks) and has sold 1.3 million copies so far this year.

Underwood isn’t just selling millions of albums; she’s also taking home countless awards. In 2006, Underwood won Breakthrough Artist of The Year at the 2006 American Music Awards; she swept the 2006 Billboard Awards by taking home five statues - Album Of The Year, Top 200 Female Artist Of The Year, Female Country Artist, New Country Artist and Country Album Of The Year; and to end the year on a good note she took home the Horizon Award for new country artist and Female Vocalist at the 2006 American Country Music Awards.

In 2007 things looked even better for Underwood when she won all three categories that she was nominated in at the 2007 Country Music Awards: Video Of The Year, Female Video Of The Year and Video Director Of The Year, for her hit song “Before He Cheats." Her dream really came true at the 2007 Grammy Awards when she won the coveted Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. It’s coveted because this is the first time an "American Idol" contestant had been nominated in the “Best New Artist” category.

With the success of “Some Hearts” country fans everywhere were anticipating the release of her sophomore album “Carnival Ride.” Released October 23, 2007 the album sold 527,000 in its first week, landing the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 and Country Album charts.

According to Daily Variety, this is the first that a former Idol champ posted a debut of first-week sales of more than 500,000 copies and the first to have his or her second album outsell their debut. “Carnival Ride” had the best sales week for a female solo country artist since Shania Twain’s “Greatest Hits”- 530,000 in November 2004.

Story by Angie Rentmeester
Starpulse contributing writer