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Gig Review: Carrie Underwood - Royal Albert Hall, London ✭✭✭✭

Carrie Underwood
Photo by James White
Royal Albert Hall

Thursday 21st June: With 14 million album sales, Carrie Underwood is a modern phenomenon, a byword for the American superstar and one of the biggest talents and sellers a TV show has ever produced.

A multi-platinum artist, five-time Grammy winner, a style icon and versatile performer, Carrie has transcended expectations and the country music genre like no other and her musical vital statistics are astonishing.

Much to the delight of her UK fans Carrie announced that she would perform her first ever UK concert, which just happened to be at one of the UK’s most prestigious venues, at the Royal Albert Hall.

With a packed concert hall; which sold out within 90 minutes of going on stage, Carrie took to the stage, wearing high heels, a floaty top and the most amazing trousers/leggings ever, she looked beautiful.

The first song to be performed was ‘Good Girl’; the first single taken from the Blown Away album, an up-beat pop song, still a hint of the country sound she is so well-known for, an energetic way to start the show. ‘Flat on the Floor’ a classic country beat, it’s taken from the album Carnival Ride. After two songs with fast beats, it was time for a slow song, from her first debut album released in 2005, ‘Wasted’, a great song, beautifully sung, it also featured a violin solo.

After the song ‘Two Back Cadillacs’, it was the first time Carrie spoke, she talked about how great it was to be there, and how honoured they were to be singing in such a great venue. Carrie also said that “the best thing about music is doing what you feel. If you want to sing, sing, if you want to dance, dance,” and the audience definitely chose to do both.

Carrie said that ‘Temporary Home’ (Play On) was a very personal song for her, it was the first song she had been a part of writing, it was a beautifully written song, touching lyrics and once again the performance was stunning.

One of the best songs of the night had to be ‘Last Name’ taken from Carnival Ride; I loved this song, definitely a crowd pleaser. Carrie worked the stage and got the audience on their feet dancing. After ‘Just A Dream’, Carrie talked about meeting her idol Randy Travis, and had the privilege of being able to cover one of his songs ‘I Told You So’.

After two more songs, there was movement around the stage, chairs were brought to the front of the stage, so Carrie and her band could sit at the front, including the drummer, who had a box that was you used for the drum. The sound that you get from the Royal Albert Hall, is amazing, Carrie’s voice filled the place. This part of the concert was a time to sit back and relax, listen to some slow songs and witness an amazing voice. ‘Quitter’ was one of the songs; Carrie described it as “a backwards love song”. ‘Do You Think About Me’ this song had a catchy repetitive beat, once again the lyrics were amazing, there is something about all of her songs, they all tell a story, I guess that’s what country music is all about. The next song was ‘One Way Ticket’, a song that sounds like a vacation, and when hearing it all you want to do is be on a beach.

Eventually we were treated to a cover of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’, it is very hard to cover a Coldplay song, in particular this song, it is so well-known, however Carrie pulled it off, I love this song so she did a great job to give the song the performance it deserves.

Jesus Takes The Wheel’ was one of the songs performed, Carrie said that it was in her top three favourite songs, as it was the first song she ever heard herself sing on the radio, at the end of the song there was an extremely long high note, showing off Carrie’s amazing voice, it’s clear that she has an incredible voice. After she performed that song she went on to say that the great thing about country music is you can sing about anything, she was write cause the next song was ‘Cupid’s Got A Shotgun’.

Before the encore Carrie performed ‘Before He Cheats’, I liked this song, a great beat, equally good lyrics, definitely a woman’s song. For the encore we had the beautifully emotional ‘I Know You Won’t’, definitely saw some teary eyes in the room. Finally Carrie and her band finished with the newest single from the album, ‘Blown Away’, a great way to end a great night.

A beautiful woman with a beautiful voice, amazing live; she brings something different to country, it has added elements of pop and rock, very entertaining. I’m glad I got to see her live.

4 out of 5 stars ✭✭✭✭

Review by Christina Benneworth



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