Carrie Underwood returns tonight to Oklahoma
From Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Carrie back home for “Carnival Ride”
Tulsa show another highlight in Underwood’s hectic year
Carrie Underwood’s year has been packed with highlights, from her induction into the Grand Ole Opry to a holiday duet with Elvis to her immortalization in wax.
The country music star reaches another highlight of her hectic year today: returning to her home state.
The Checotah native and special guests Little Big Town will perform at 7:30 tonight at Tulsa’s new BOK Center, a venue she is eager to play. Underwood, 25, said the latest stop on her “Carnival Ride Tour” will be just her second trip back to Oklahoma this year.
“I’m just looking forward to coming home. It’s been too long,” Underwood said in a recent phone interview from Virginia.
The 2005 “American Idol” winner embarked in February on her first headlining tour, supporting her 2007 sophomore album “Carnival Ride.” She has been on tour virtually nonstop since.
“At first I was really nervous, almost to the point of making myself sick. … I was envisioning the worse, obviously,” she said. “But it’s been great; people have been turning up and having a good time. I love it when venues are like oh, we’ve sold out. It’s good. Good news keeps happening.”
Between singing on the TV special “Stand Up to Cancer,” earning top female vocalist honors at the Academy of Country Music Awards and playing sold-out shows, Underwood accepted an invitation this year to sing a Christmas duet with the late, great King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
She was one of 11 women singers picked for “Elvis Presley Christmas Duets,” a new album that used studio technology to seamlessly merge new performances with Presley’s old recordings.
Underwood crooned along with the King on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” and said she will proudly show off the song someday to her children and grandchildren.
“When you actually get into the studio and you hear Elvis Presley’s voice and you’re harmonizing with it … it’s just very surreal. And we recorded that song in the studio he used to record at quite frequently; that even made it more nostalgic. It was a very good experience and it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime things,” she said as her rat terrier Ace barked in the background.
Underwood also accepted an invitation from the Country Music Association to co-host the Nov. 12 CMA Awards with Brad Paisley. Underwood and Paisley are the reigning CMA top female and male vocalists and are nominated for those titles again.
“Brad and I have been paired together on a lot of stuff and we have a really good chemistry. He’s definitely a good friend of mine, so they didn’t have to talk me in very much. I was in from the start,” she said.
She said the highlight of her year – and life – happened this spring when she was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry. One of her musical idols, fellow Oklahoman Garth Brooks, handled her induction.
“The Grand Ole Opry is synonymous with country music. No other genre of music has anything like it. … The whole process was just magical,” she said.
Her latest good news occurred last week, when Underwood unveiled a wax likeness of herself at Madame Tussauds New York. Artists from the famed house of wax visited Underwood on the road to get measurements, take pictures and have her model for the wax doppelganger.
While the experience was fun, Underwood said she was a bit befuddled as to why her likeness would be included in the museum’s “VIP Room.”
“Whenever, like, I was asked about it, I was kind of like ‘why?’” she said laughing. “I don’t know, I envision myself being one that people walk through and everybody being like ‘Who is this blond chick? Why is she here?’”
Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town said Underwood is “a doll” who has stayed down to earth and puts on a great show.
Underwood expects tonight’s show, and spending time after with family and friends, to be another highlight for her year.
“Hometown crowds are the best. They’re the ones that are most excited, especially Oklahoma because it played such a huge role in supporting me throughout ‘American Idol’ and eventually putting me where I am now. So it’s great to go back and kind of pay homage and just have fun with my people.”
In concert
Who: Carrie Underwood with special guests Little Big Town.
When: 7:30 tonight.
Where: BOK Center, 200 S Denver, Tulsa.
Information: (866) 726-5287 or www.bokcenter.com.
-BAM
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