Carrie blows audience away with powerful performance

COUNTRY superstar Carrie Underwood proved she is most definitely the reigning Queen of Country with a spectacular performance at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast last Friday night.

The former American Idol winner brought her ‘Blown Away’ tour to Belfast as she visited Northern Ireland for the first time, and judging by this performance, fans will hope it is certainly not her last.

Underwood has become the most successful of the American Idol alumni, which includes Kelly Clarkson and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, selling over 15 million albums worldwide, with 16 number one hits in the US, seven of which she’s co-written, and picking up six Grammy Awards along the way.

It’s no surprise that her first show on these shores was a sell out, and fans loved every minute as she performed hit after hit from her four albums, Some Hearts, Carnival Ride, Play On and Blown Away.

Displaying the impressive vocal talent that led her to being crowned the American Idol, the country beauty took fans through an ‘Oz’ inspired land in the video backdrop to the Blown Away tour.

Opening the show with power anthem ‘Good Girl’, before moving onto hits such as ‘Undo It’, ‘Quitter’ and ‘Wasted’, Underwood slowed things down as she performed a beautiful rendition of Randy Travis’s ‘I Told You So’, a song she told fans, that she would listen to on her sisters’ cassette tapes.

With a mix of the old and new, Underwood moved onto ‘Two Black Cadillacs’, from last year’s Blown Away album, before taking things back to the beginning with the beautiful ‘Some Hearts’.

Telling the crowd after the song about her pleasure at meeting local fans ahead of the show, Underwood announced that she would be meeting two more, as she invited a couple, Terry and Rachel, onto the stage, where a surprise marriage proposal then took place, much to the delight of the audience and Underwood herself, who told fans she was the ‘worst secret keeper’ and was relieved that the proposal was over so she didn’t ruin the surprise.

Moving on, she quipped that Rachel would be changing her ‘Last Name’, leading her into the hit song, although we’ll hope Rachel will know her last name!

Slowing things down with two songs which she said had great meaning to her, Underwood performed fan favourites ‘Temporary Home’ and ‘Jesus, Take The Wheel’, which she mixed with ‘How Great Thou Art’, bringing a gospel feel to the night and leaving the crowd surging to their feet in appreciation as Carrie took us to church.

The night continued with track after track, including ‘Cowboy Casanova’, ‘All-American Girl’, the summer inspired ‘One Way Ticket’ and ‘Cupid’s Got a Shotgun’, as the energetic star carried on throughout the night not stopping for breaks or costume changes.

Rounding out the night with ‘Before He Cheats’, Underwood had fans singing along as she came back for an encore of fan favourite ‘I Know You Won’t’.

Ending the night on a high with ‘Blown Away’ as a storm raged behind her, Carrie Underwood delivered the final blow in a powerhouse performance, which literally did blow fans away.