BRANDY MCDONNELL

Carrie Underwood and Ludacris' 'The Champion' certified platinum one year after opening Super Bowl LII

Brandy McDonnell
Carrie Underwood. Photo by Randee St. Nicholas

One year after garnering worldwide attention opening NBC’s Super Bowl LII, Checotah native Carrie Underwood’s hit event anthem “The Champion,” featuring Ludacris, has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. 

As previously reported, she wrote "The Champion" with fellow songwriters Brett James (who grew up in Oklahoma City and Cordell), Chris DeStefano, and Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges, whom Underwood asked to collaborate on the event song produced by Jim Jonsin. NBC Sports also incorporated “The Champion” into its coverage of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Globally, “The Champion” reached No. 1 on the iTunes Top Songs chart in 10 countries, including the U.S., where it held the top spot throughout its release week then rose back to the top of the chart for four consecutive days after the Super Bowl LII opening. The song also debuted Top 5 on the all-genre Top 200 Digital Songs chart and reached No. 7 on the Spotify US Viral 50 Chart with more than 151 million streams to date, according to a news release. 

The powerful montage video, directed by Jimmy Lynch, won CMT’s 2018 Video Music Award for Female Video of the Year. Fans around the world continue to share their own champion-inspired photos and videos across social media using #TheChampion, a key driver to the song’s success. 

Additionally, “The Champion” is featured as a bonus track on Underwood’s critically-acclaimed, gold-certified sixth studio album, "Cry Pretty." Released in September, Underwood’s first studio album on Capitol Records Nashville debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Album Charts and was the biggest all-genre debut by a female in 2018.

Co-produced by Underwood and writer/producer David Garcia, that debut earned Underwood a place in music history as the only woman to land four country albums at the top of the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, as well as the first female country act to top the Billboard Artist 100 Chart. The album was the best-selling country album debut of 2018, as well as the biggest country album debut since 2015 and the biggest female country album debut since 2012. "Cry Pretty’s" debut week also marked the most first week streams by any female in country music. It is Underwood’s seventh consecutive album to debut at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, representing all of her first seven albums, including her "Greatest Hits: Decade #1." 

Underwood, who is nominated for Country Artist of the Year at the upcoming iHeartRadio Music Awards, was also Apple Music’s most-streamed country female artist for 2018. "Cry Pretty" debuted as the fifth most-streamed country album in genre history and had the highest solo female debut for all music in 2018. It recently hit No. 1 again on the Country Album Charts in January 2019. The second single from the album, “Love Wins,” continues to climb the charts.

As previously reported, the seven-time Grammy winner in January gave birth to Jacob Bryan Fisher, her second son with husband Mike Fisher. Pollstar’s three-time top female country touring artist will kick off a new arena tour, "The Cry Pretty Tour 360," May 1 in Greensboro, North Carolina. As previously reported, the tour will play 55 arenas across the U.S. and Canada, including home-state shows Sept. 25 show at Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W Reno, and Oct. 24 at Tulsa’s BOK Center, 200 S Denver. The Oklahoma native will be joined on tour by special guests Oklahoma-Texas duo Maddie & Tae and Runaway June.

-BAM