With her blonde curls, big voice, and bubbly girl-next-door persona, Carrie Underwood charmed judges and viewers alike on American Idol’s fourth season as she belted her way to a win in 2005. And if any naysayers believed that her dominant victory wouldn’t translate to mainstream success, the Oklahoma-born star proved them resoundingly wrong with massive hits like “Inside Your Heaven” and “Before He Cheats”.
After marrying hockey star Mike Fisher in 2010, Underwood briefly stepped off the country-music carousel she’d been riding for the better part of a decade. When she returned to the studio nearly two years later, the eight-time Grammy Award winner was itching to shed her “America’s sweetheart” image in favor of darker lyrical material with more emotional heft.
The result was her fourth studio album, Blown Away, which leaned more into a pop sound while exploring moody, weather-inspired imagery. On this day (July 9) in 2012, Underwood released the album’s title track, which would soon give the American Idol champ her 13th number-one hit on country radio.
Why Only Carrie Underwood Could Have Performed “Blown Away”
“Blown Away” saw the reunion of Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear, the same songwriting team who delivered Carrie Underwood’s smash hit “Before He Cheats”.
While they didn’t start writing “Blown Away” with Underwood in mind, it quickly became clear that only the nine-time CMA Award winner could do it justice.
The song’s lyrics are about a young woman who locks herself in a storm cellar as a tornado rages outside, leaving her abusive, alcoholic father passed out and unprotected on the living room couch: There’s not enough rain in Oklahoma / To wash the sins out of that house.
“Right when we hit that, it was like, ‘OK … we’re on a Carrie Underwood song,’” Tompkins told Taste of Country.
She Loved It
Speaking with The Boot, Carrie Underwood recalled falling in love with “Blown Away” on first listen.
“I remember where I was when I heard it and called my manager, Ann, and I was like, ‘Do not let anyone else have this song! It’s my song,’” she said. “In talking to Chris and Josh about it, they [told me], ‘We said we’re either writing a song for Carrie Underwood or this song is never going to see the light of day.’ It made me feel so good that they were thinking of me when they wrote it.”
In Underwood’s hands, “Blown Away” becomes a force of nature much like the one described in the lyrics. She was also intimately involved in the music video, coming up with the dark Wizard of Oz motif present throughout.
[RELATED: Carrie Underwood Reflects on Childhood Dream After Sharing Stage With Alan Jackson]
Rising to the top of the Country Airplay chart, “Blown Away” also reached number 20 on the all-genre Hot 100. Underwood snagged a pair of Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance.
Featured image by Graham Denholm/Getty Images
The post 14 Years Ago Today, Carrie Underwood Released Her Record-Breaking Ballad Inspired by ‘The Wizard of Oz’ appeared first on American Songwriter.
Go To Source | Author: Erinn Callahan
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