American Idol Carrie Underwood Debuts at Number One on Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart

American Idol Carrie Underwood Debuts at Number One on Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart

Carrie Underwood Highest Selling Debut Country Artist in the SoundScan Era

NEW YORK, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Idol winner Carrie Underwood made history today when her debut 19 Recordings/Arista Records album, Some Hearts, moved more than 314,000 units in its first week of release, making her the highest debuting new artist in the country genre since SoundScan began. Carrie also earned the distinction of selling more units than any other debut female American Idol star to date. In addition, Carrie's album is the highest charting album for a debut artist in 2005.

The sales numbers easily put Some Hearts at the top of Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart, with an overall ranking of Number 2 on the Billboard 200 which ranks albums of all genres.

Carrie Underwood's impressive sales numbers were propelled by two hit singles at separate radio formats. "Jesus, Take The Wheel" is currently sitting at 14 Bullet on the Billboard Monitor Country chart and is gaining momentum more quickly than any other record at the format. In fact, the track made chart history earlier this fall by becoming the first single by a new artist to debut inside the Top 40 on the country charts since BDS monitoring started in 1990. On the pop side, the title track "Some Hearts," which was shipped to radio only weeks ago, is quickly climbing the Billboard Monitor Pop charts, giving the vocalist exposure on country and pop radio formats out of the box, a rarity in today's music business and virtually unheard of for a new artist.

In addition to the remarkable radio airplay, Carrie has only just begun a slate of television performances which will remind fans of the spectacular voice and charismatic stage presence that earned her the top spot at this year's American Idol competition. Ms. Underwood's performance at the recent CMA Awards made show history when she became the first artist with only one single to secure a coveted performance and presenter slot on the biggest Country Music primetime television show of the year. Carrie also recently performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and on the Today Show and will perform on The View today. She is scheduled to make appearances on Ellen and the Billboard Awards. In addition, Carrie will bring some holiday cheer to television audiences by singing Christmas songs on shows like Dr. Phil, TNT's upcoming "Christmas in Washington" special and on the annual Christmas at Rockefeller Center. Carrie will be the subject of a profile on NBC's Dateline in early December as well as a profile on CMT's "In The Moment" on December 16th.

Thanksgiving is a particularly exciting day for Carrie -- the music video for "Jesus, Take The Wheel" is set to debut on CMT on Thanksgiving Day as a "Hot Shot" and she will perform "Some Hearts" on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

With such a strong promotional schedule, radio airplay continuing on the upswing, and a slew of magazine features still to come, Carrie Underwood will undoubtedly become very familiar with the top of the charts for the remainder of 2005 and beyond.

Source: Arista Records

CONTACT: John Vlautin of SpinLab, +1-323-465-3700, jv@spinlab.net; or
Jessie Schmidt of Schmidt Relations, +1-615-846-3878, jessie@schmidtpr.com ;
or Allen Brown of RCA Label Group, +1-615-301-4300, allen.brown@sonybmg.com,
all for Arista Records

Web site: http://www.jrecords.com/

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