Carrie Underwood’s Most Badass Moments: From ‘Before He Cheats’ to Nonstop Real Talk

Credit: Jeff Kravitz/ACMA2018/FilmMagic for ACM

Carrie Underwood's Most Badass Moments: From 'Before He Cheats' to Nonstop Real Talk

Bow down to the queen of country music! Carrie Underwood has proven time and time again throughout her illustrious career that she is one of a kind. The singer stole hearts when she appeared as a contestant on season 4 of American Idol in 2005. She went on to win the competition and record hit after hit, including “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Before He Cheats,” “Cowboy Casanova” and “Cry Pretty.” Underwood’s small-town appeal bled into her highly successful work. As time went on, she opened up more about her personal life — from her marriage to husband Mike Fisher to their struggles to conceive sons Isaiah and Jacob. “It took us a while to get here. … I’m gonna cry again,” she told Us Weekly of her second pregnancy in November 2018. “[I’m] just so thankful … to find out Isaiah’s gonna have a baby brother. It was just great news. We’re excited.” Underwood further explained her philosophy as a mom juggling a demanding career. “Balance is what it’s all about. No matter what your job is,” she revealed to Us in October 2018. “Being a mom, working and dividing your time. It is what we all have to do as mothers.” An accident at her home in November 2017 left the “Church Bells” songstress with 40 to 50 stitches in her face and a broken wrist. She retreated from the public eye as she healed, only to come back better and stronger than ever months later. As for the tough times, she assured Redbook in August 2018, “Life is full of ups and downs, and I might have had a few more downs than ups last year.” From her revenge anthems to personal health battles to the classiest clapbacks ever, scroll to take a look back at Underwood’s most badass moments of all time!

Credit: Jeff Kravitz/ACMA2018/FilmMagic for ACM

Carrie Underwood's Most Badass Moments: From 'Before He Cheats' to Nonstop Real Talk

Bow down to the queen of country music! Carrie Underwood has proven time and time again throughout her illustrious career that she is one of a kind. The singer stole hearts when she appeared as a contestant on season 4 of American Idol in 2005. She went on to win the competition and record hit after hit, including “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” “Before He Cheats,” “Cowboy Casanova” and “Cry Pretty.” Underwood’s small-town appeal bled into her highly successful work. As time went on, she opened up more about her personal life — from her marriage to husband Mike Fisher to their struggles to conceive sons Isaiah and Jacob. “It took us a while to get here. … I’m gonna cry again,” she told Us Weekly of her second pregnancy in November 2018. “[I’m] just so thankful … to find out Isaiah’s gonna have a baby brother. It was just great news. We’re excited.” Underwood further explained her philosophy as a mom juggling a demanding career. “Balance is what it’s all about. No matter what your job is,” she revealed to Us in October 2018. “Being a mom, working and dividing your time. It is what we all have to do as mothers.” An accident at her home in November 2017 left the “Church Bells” songstress with 40 to 50 stitches in her face and a broken wrist. She retreated from the public eye as she healed, only to come back better and stronger than ever months later. As for the tough times, she assured Redbook in August 2018, “Life is full of ups and downs, and I might have had a few more downs than ups last year.” From her revenge anthems to personal health battles to the classiest clapbacks ever, scroll to take a look back at Underwood’s most badass moments of all time!

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Before He Cheats

Underwood started her post-American Idol career strong with “Before He Cheats,” the 2006 smash single from her debut album, Some Hearts. The song was powerful enough on its own, but the music video, in which the songstress took revenge on her cheating boyfriend by vandalizing his truck, elevated it to a whole other level.

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Ex Diss

The Grammy winner took aim at her ex-boyfriend Tony Romo in December 2009 when Esquire magazine suggested her song “Cowboy Casanova” was about the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback. “No, I would never immortalize a guy that did me wrong,” she explained. “I would never give him that much credit.” The duo split in 2007 after several months of dating.

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Love Wins

Underwood spoke out in support of gay marriage in June 2012. “As a married person myself, I don’t know what it’s like to be told I can’t marry somebody I love and want to marry,” she told The Independent at the time. “I can’t imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love.” The American Idol alum wed Fisher in July 2010.

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Laughing About It

The frequent CMA Awards cohost made fun of herself after she fell onstage at a September 2013 concert in Texas. “Hey, remember that time in Corpus Christi when that girl busted her butt on stage? Hilarious!” she tweeted. “Oh wait, that was me!” Brad Paisley later got in on the laughs, leading Underwood to resurface a clip of him busting it.  

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Working Mom

The songwriter took her son Isaiah on the road for her 2016 Storyteller Tour when he was only 11 months old. “He was right there when we had our first show. And it was really hard,” she recalled to PopCulture.com. “Obviously, I have help when I’m out there. Somebody’s gotta watch my kid when I’m out on stage.” However, she still managed the bulk of the responsibilities. “Nobody ever got up with my kid in the middle of the night,” she said. “That was me, and I’m proud of that.” She plans to do the same when baby Jacob joins her 2019 Cry Pretty Tour 360.

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Proud Wifey

Underwood defended Fisher’s team in April 2018 when she noticed unfair calls in a Nashville Predators game. “Goaltender interference? Are you out of your mind? On what planet? #WorstCallEver @PredsNHL #NSHvsFLA,” she tweeted at the time. “Biggest pile of [poop] ever! Preds were straight up robbed. I am seriously livid. @NHL, fix this.”

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Back on the Horse

The “Love Wins” singer returned to the stage at the ACM Awards in April 2018, five months after she broke her wrist and injured her face in a scary fall. She sang her single “Cry Pretty” through tears and received a standing ovation for the powerhouse performance.

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Infertility Real Talk

Shortly after announcing her second pregnancy, Underwood revealed that she suffered three miscarriages in two years. “Right after finding out that I would lose a baby, I’d have a writing session, I’d be like, ‘Let’s go.’ You know, I can’t just sit around thinking about this,” she said on CBS Sunday Morning in September 2018. “’Cause I would literally have these horrible things going on in my life, and then have to go smile and, like, do some interviews or, like, do a photo shoot or something, you know? So it was just kind of, like, therapeutic, I guess.”

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Happy in Her Skin

The Oklahoma native showed off her facial injury scar for the first time in October 2018. She proudly displayed the beauty mark in a throwback selfie from her “Love Wins” music video.

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Uphill Battle

Underwood explained the challenges she faced while recording her Cry Pretty album as she recovered from her accident. “I had stitches inside my mouth, outside my mouth,” she told Vulture in November 2018. “It was physically impossible.” She overcame the issue to record her sixth CD, which was released in September of that year.

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Negativity Not Welcome

Don’t hate! The “Jesus, Take the Wheel” songstress clapped back at an internet troll who dissed her track “Game On.” Underwood tweeted in December 2018 that her “music isn’t for everyone,” but she loves what she does and “women who build other women up.”

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Back to Her

The Soul Surfer star opened up in March 2019 about her struggles with bouncing back after delivering her second child in January. “My body has not belonged to me. It was a perfect home for Jacob,” she wrote via Instagram. “And even now it belongs to him every time he drinks his milk. As I prepare for red carpets and for life on tour, right now I make a promise to myself to start appreciating what my body CAN do and stop focusing on what it can’t.”

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Making CMT Awards History

The country songstress ended the 2019 CMT Awards with her 20th win, which further extended her record-breaking winning streak at the misc-filled event. (She is currently the most awarded artists in the show’s history.) The blonde went up against the likes of Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert to win this year’s Female Video of the Year award. She was also recognized with the ceremony’s coveted Video of the Year award, which she thanked her fans during her acceptance speech at the end of the night.

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Championing Strong Women

In her March 2020 interview with Parade, Underwood opened up about how she includes the stories of women in many of her songs who are finding their strength to overcome tough situations.
 
“I love strong women. In a lot of my songs, the woman has to be pushed to her limit. She fights back and overcomes. And I love that,” she told the magazine. “Hopefully nobody has lived out many of my songs, and while I don’t advocate for violence or destruction of property, we all have our own situations where we’re just done—and we have the ability and the strength and the power to fight back.”

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Doing It Her Way

“I’ve seen crazy diet suggestions, and I’ve tried some that are entirely unsustainable,” Underwood told Parade in March 2020. "No, I’m not going to puree my own peas or make my own hummus. They have it at the store. You know what I do? I eat microwave burritos multiple times a week because they’re easy. It’s about finding those solutions and doing your best.”

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Putting Her Foot Down

Underwood admitted that while she enjoys cooking, she has her limits on what she will prepare for her husband. “I’m not a good meat cooker because I’m not a meat eater,” she dished on The Rachael Ray Show in March 2020. “So I will do all the veggies and all the sides, and if he wants meat, he’s gonna have to make that himself.”
 
The Grammy winner continued, “He loves grilling out. I’ll make him some salmon or chicken, or something like that, that’s a little more simple.”