Play On (Carrie Underwood album)
Play On is the third studio album by American country music singer Carrie Underwood. It was released in the United States on November 3, 2009, through Arista Nashville. Play On was produced by Mark Bright who also produced Underwood's Carnival Ride and seven other songs off of Some Hearts.[1]
Play On
November 3, 2009
July 2008 – September 2009
Starstruck Studios (Nashville)
Maratone Studios (Stockholm)
Germano Studios (New York City)
48:20
The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 318,000 copies, which was rated as the highest first-week sales for a female artist in 2009 upon release. It is her second album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, and her third to debut atop the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. As of October 2016, the album has been certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA, Platinum by the CRIA and Gold by the ARIA. Play On has since sold over three million copies worldwide. "Temporary Home" and "Mama's Song" were both nominated for Grammy Awards, while Play On was nominated for Album of the Year at both the 45th Academy of Country Music Awards and 2010 Country Music Association Awards, and won Favorite Country Album at the American Music Awards of 2010.
The album spawned three consecutive Billboard Hot Country Songs number one singles — "Cowboy Casanova", "Temporary Home" and "Undo It", all of which certified Multi-Platinum or Platinum by the RIAA. The fourth single, "Mama's Song", reached number two on the chart and received a Gold certification from the RIAA. "Cowboy Casanova" achieved one of the biggest single-week upwards on the Billboard Hot 100 of all time, when it climbed from 96 to 11 in its second week.
Promotion[edit]
Prior to the release of Play On, three promotional singles were made available by iTunes. "Mama's Song" released on October 12 followed by "Temporary Home" which was released on October 20 and "Undo It" released on October 27. Billboard.com also posted a 60-second clip of each song being released on iTunes.
On October 16, 2009, Underwood performed in Singapore to promote the album to the Asian media. The album was released on November 2 in various parts of Asia, followed by a November 3 release in the United States. Underwood performed on Late Show with David Letterman on November 2, and performed a special outdoor concert at Lincoln Center on Good Morning America on the release day, and rounded out her week with a visit to Live with Regis and Kelly on November 5.
She debuted several of her singles at the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Country Music Association Awards.
She also appeared on several shows to promote her album including Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Live With Regis and Kelly, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, American Music Awards, CNN International, and at the Grand Ole Opry.
On the November 16, 2009, episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, Underwood performed "Temporary Home", which became the second official single from Play On.
Tours[edit]
North American Tour[edit]
Underwood began the Play On Tour on March 11, 2010. The tour includes several legs traveling across the globe, with the first and second leg focusing on the United States and Canada. Her opening acts/guest performers for the spring tour were Craig Morgan and Sons of Sylvia. The second leg included Sons of Sylvia and country singer Billy Currington. The first leg began in Reading, Pennsylvania on March 11, and concluded in Saint Paul, Minnesota at the Minnesota State Fair on August 31. The second leg began on September 25, in Portland, Oregon, and concluded on December 19, in Calgary, Canada.
The tour was ranked at number 15 on the Top 100 Tours in July 2010 for the first half of the year. Within four months of the tour's first leg, it raked in an approximate total of $18,400,000, and sold over 375,000 tickets.
In December 2010, the tour ranked at number 19 for the largest North American tours of 2010,[9] and again at number 31 for the largest tours worldwide for the 2010 touring year.[10] The tour made a collective total of $38,300,000 [9] and reached to over one million fans,[11] becoming Underwood's largest tour to date.
Australian Tour[edit]
On May 16, 2011, Sony Music and Underwood collectively announced the singer would travel to Australia in June 2011 to promote her Play On album for her first international headline tour. During the tour's duration, Underwood would also release the Play On: Deluxe Edition exclusively to Australia. The album included six previous number one singles of Underwood's, as well as a studio recording of "Home Sweet Home", a recording in which has never been featured on an album before.[12]
Commercial performance[edit]
Play On debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart, as well as the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 318,000 copies, and rated as the highest first week sales for a female artist in 2009, before being overtaken by Susan Boyle a few weeks later.[26] In its second week, the album slipped to number three with sales of 128,000. Play On spent nine consecutive weeks at number two in Top Country Albums Chart, and stayed in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 for its first eight weeks of release. By October 2015, the album had sold 2,300,000 copies in the US, and it was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA on October 24, 2016, for three million units in sales and streams.[27][28]
The album debuted at number 114 on the Japan Oricon Albums Chart and number 93 on the UK Albums Chart,[29] becoming Underwood's first entry on both charts. In Canada, the album debuted at number two on the Canadian charts with 15,000 sales.[30] In Australia, it debuted at number three on the Top 20 Country Albums chart and at number 80 on the National Album Charts ARIA Top 100. Underwood traveled to Australia for a promotional tour for the deluxe edition of Play On during June 2011. For the chart week following her promotional tour, the album re-entered both the Top 20 Country Albums chart and the National Album Charts ARIA Top 100 at number two and number 14. The album rose to number one on the Top 20 Country Albums chart the following week giving Underwood her first number one album in Australia, and remained stable on the National Album Charts ARIA Top 100, at number 15. It has reached Gold status in Australia and it is her first album to do so.[31] Play On has since sold over three million copies worldwide.[32]
Play On charted at number seventy three on Billboard 200 and at number 15 on Top Country Albums for the year ending 2009.[33] In December 2010, the album was placed on Billboard's Year-End Charts, landing at number four for Country Albums, and at number twelve for Billboard 200 Albums. The following year, it charted at number 37 for Country Albums [34] and number 176 for Billboard 200 Albums.[35]
Notes
Vocals
Musicians
The Nashville String Machine (4)
Group vocals (1)
Production