'Blown Away' Takes Carrie Underwood to Top of Country Music World in 2012

Carrie Underwood may have titled her 2012 album release Blown Away, but it's also an apt description for the five-time GRAMMY winner's year, which on all fronts - from touring to airplay, sales, awards, and media appearances - marked an incredibly exciting year for Underwood and her fans.

Playing to more than a half-million fans throughout her 62-show 2012 "Blown Away Tour," Underwood not only ranked as the top female country touring artist of the year according to Pollstar's Year-End chart, she also played her first concerts in Australia and the U.K, where her concert at London's Royal Albert Hall sold out in only 90 minutes.

Carrie's singles for "Good Girl" and "Blown Away" collectively spent a total of three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard and Country Aircheck country airplay charts, more than any other female country artist in 2012.

Her success continued on the video front, as well, with "Good Girl" logging a record-setting 14 weeks at No. 1 on CMT's Top 20 Countdown and becoming the show's No. 1 video of the year. Similarly, Carrie's cinematic video for "Blown Away" also became a runaway favorite, achieving an unprecedented cumulative 14 weeks at No. 1 during its 15-week run on GAC's fan-voted Top 20 Country Countdown.

Already a five-time GRAMMY winner, Underwood's December GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Solo Performance for "Blown Away" (which also earned a Best Country Song nomination for writers Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins) marked another highlight in an award-filled year that saw Carrie walk away with her seventh American Music Award. Carrie's AMA win for Favorite Country Album is not only her fourth win in as many albums, but also the first time in AMA history that an artist has captured the Country Album category on every album released. At the American Country Awards, she extended her reign as the most-awarded artist in the show's three-year history, now with 11 ACA wins, with a pair of 2012 honors including Artist of the Year: Female.

At the CMT Music Awards, "Good Girl" was named Video of the Year, while Carrie shared honors for Collaborative Video of the Year for "Remind Me" with Brad Paisley. At year-end, Underwood was also named among CMT's Artists of the Year.

On the media front, Carrie was all over the TV airwaves in 2012, featured in such original programming as CMT Crossroads: Steven Tyler & Carrie Underwood, Behind the Music: Carrie Underwood, and VH1 Presents: Carrie Underwood Unplugged, as well as the ACM Awards, American Idol, the Billboard Music Awards, CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock, the CMT Music Awards, Dancing with the Stars, the Dateline 20th Anniversary Special, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Good Morning America, the GRAMMY Awards, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Late Show with David Letterman, and Nightline, as well as Oprah's Next Chapter: Carrie Underwood, Today's Summer Concert Series, Teachers Rock, and more, including returning for the fifth consecutive year as co-host of the CMA Awards.

In addition to her television appearances, Underwood also graced numerous magazine covers in 2012, some of which included Billboard, Glamour, and SELF.

Blown Away made history this spring by debuting at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart, making Carrie only the second country artist in the 47-year history of the chart to have each of their first four albums debut at No. 1. Blown Away also debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, making Carrie only the second country artist in history to have three consecutive albums debut at No. 1.

Since releasing her debut, Some Hearts, in 2005, Carrie has sold more than 15 million albums with Some Hearts, 2007's Carnival Ride, and 2009's Play On making her the best-selling American Idol in the U.S. She's accumulated 16 No. 1 singles, seven of which she co-wrote, and became the first country artist in history and the only American Idol winner ever to achieve 10 No. 1 singles from their first two albums. She is a five-time GRAMMY winner, a two-time Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year, a three-time Country Music Association and ACM Female Vocalist winner, and a proud member of The Grand Ole Opry.