Blown Away (album)
Blown Away is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood. It was released in the United States and Canada on May 1, 2012, by Arista Nashville.[1] After finishing her successful Play On Tour in December 2010 to promote her third studio album Play On, Underwood started working on the album, but took her time, as she "wanted to change things up", and needed to step away from the "celebrity bubble" to "have real things to write about and to sing about". It took her over one year to finish the album, which, according to Underwood, ended up having a "darker storyline" than her previous efforts.
Blown Away
May 1, 2012
February 27 – November 22, 2011
55:20
Met with mostly positive reviews from music critics, the album became a commercial success. It debuted at number one on Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 267,000 copies, achieving the third-largest opening of 2012. With Blown Away reaching number one, Underwood became the third female to chart at number one on the Billboard 200 with three country albums, tying her with Linda Ronstadt and Faith Hill. Like her three previous albums, Blown Away debuted at the top of the Top Country Albums chart. The album remained at number one for a second week on the Billboard 200, becoming her first album to spend more than one week at the top of that chart. It topped the "Top Country Albums" chart for seven weeks.
Blown Away was the seventh best selling album overall and second best-selling country album of 2012 in the US. It finished 2012 with over 1.4 million copies sold worldwide, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Blown Away has since sold around 1.8 million copies in the US and over two million copies worldwide. In January 2020, the album was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA.
It spawned the Billboard Hot 100 Top 20 and Country Airplay number-one singles "Good Girl" and "Blown Away", along with the Country Airplay top-two hits "Two Black Cadillacs" and "See You Again". All singles received multi-Platinum or Platinum certifications.
In 2013, at the 55th Grammy Awards, Underwood won the Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance for "Blown Away", which also won Best Country Song for its songwriters. The album won the American Music Award for Favorite Country Album.
Background and composition[edit]
After Underwood's Play On Tour ended in December 2010, she started to work on her fourth studio album. Underwood took her time working on Blown Away. She stated that she "wanted to change things up", and she needed to step away from the "celebrity bubble" to "have real things to write about and real things to sing about."[2] Sony Music Nashville chairman/CEO Gary Overton said that the singer "took nearly a year to compile and record the songs."[3] Songwriters Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear wrote "Blown Away" and sent it to the singer.[4] Underwood loved the song and recorded it, also naming her album Blown Away as it was the song that defined the album's darker direction.[5] She then started writing material with several songwriters, including Hillary Lindsey and Kear. Together, the trio wrote "Two Black Cadillacs", which is about two women finding out that they both are involved in a relationship with the same man and set their differences aside to kill him. Underwood said that "it was so much fun to write and just be in that room" with Lindsey and Kear, as they "didn't really know what to expect or where we were headed or what we would end up with."[6]
Underwood has stated that the album would contain material that is different from her previous efforts, since stating that Blown Away features songs with a "darker storyline."[7] She has stated that she isn't trying to impress people with what [she] can do" and she doesn't "have to sing to the moon with every single song" with this project. The lead single, "Good Girl," is said to be the album's most upbeat track, with the other tracks creating a much darker record.[8]
The album combines country, pop and rock genres.[9] Ashley Gorley described writing the single, "Good Girl", saying, "I was out in Los Angeles working on projects with Chris [DeStefano.] Carrie happened to be out there, and Carrie’s management team had an idea for the three of us to all get together to write. I had written with Carrie and Chris several times separately, but never together. We all thought it would be a great combination and turns out we were right!”[10]
Commercial performance[edit]
Blown Away debuted at number one in the United States on the Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 267,000 copies. It is Carrie Underwood's third number-one album on the chart, following Carnival Ride (2007) and Play On (2009). She is the third female to chart at number one on the Billboard 200 with three country albums, thus tying her with Linda Ronstadt and Faith Hill.[32] Like her three previous albums, Blown Away also debuted at the top of the Top Country Albums chart, making Underwood only the second female to achieve that feat.[33] In its second week, Blown Away stayed at number one, being Underwood's first album to spend more than a week at the top, selling 120,000 copies.[34] Blown Away has topped the US Top Country Albums chart for seven weeks, being Underwood's longest run at number one on the chart since her debut album, Some Hearts, logged 27 weeks on top.[35][36]
The album was the seventh best selling album of 2012 in the US, being the second time Underwood has an album inside the top 10 albums since her debut album Some Hearts (2005) landed at number three in 2006. It was number two for country albums.[37] Blown Away finished 2012 with over 1,400,000 copies sold worldwide, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.[38] As of October 2019, Blown Away has sold 1,853,200 copies in the US.[39] It has sold over two million copies worldwide, becoming Underwood's fourth consecutive album to sell at least two million copies.[40] In January 2020, the album received a 3× Platinum certification from the RIAA for 3 million units in sales and streams.[41]
In Canada, the album debuted at number one, with first-week sales of 17,300 copies.[42] It also debuted at number four on the ARIA Top 50 Albums, and at number one on the ARIA Top 20 Country Albums charts in Australia.[43] Her first-ever officially released album in the United Kingdom, Blown Away debuted at number eleven on the UK Top 100 Albums, and at number one on the UK Top Country Albums.[44] It has since sold 61,000 copies in the United Kingdom[45] and has been certified Silver by the BPI.[46]