Carrie Underwood’s event anthem “The Champion” featuring Ludacris has reached Platinum status on the anniversary of the song’s 2018 Super Bowl debut. Underwood co-wrote the tune with fellow songwriters Brett James, Chris DeStefano, and Christopher Bridges (PKA Ludacris), who Underwood asked to collaborate on the song.
The song reached No. 1 on the iTunes Top Songs chart in 10 countries including the U.S., where it held the top spot throughout its release week then rose back to the top of the chart for four consecutive days after the Super Bowl LII opening. The song also debuted Top 5 on the all-genre Top 200 Digital Songs chart and reached No. 7 on the Spotify US Viral 50 Chart with over 151 million streams to date. NBC Sports incorporated “The Champion” into its coverage of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
The song’s video, directed by Jimmy Lynch, won CMT’s 2018 Video Music Award for Female Video of the Year. “The Champion” is featured as a bonus track on Underwood’s album Cry Pretty. Released in September 2018, Cry Pretty marked Underwood’s first studio album on Capitol Records Nashville, and debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top Country Album Charts. The album was named the biggest all-genre debut by a female in 2018.
About the Author
Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.View Author Profile
