Carrie Underwood Named Top-Selling Female of 2018 as Cry Pretty Debuts with Record-Breaking Numbers
This is the biggest country release since Luke Bryan's Kill The Lights in 2015.
Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty is a hit among fans who helped the country superstar earn her fourth No.1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. Released on Sept. 14, the project earned 266,000 equivalent album units in its first week of sales. Of that, 251,000 were in traditional album sales.
The Oklahoma native’s ascent to the top of the Billboard 200 chart marks a history-making moment as she becomes the first woman to bring four country albums (Cry Pretty, Blown Away [2012], Play On [2009] and Carnival Ride [2007]) to the top of the all-genre chart.
Previously, Underwood was tied with Faith Hill, Linda Ronstadt and Taylor Swift (Swift has five No.1s on the Billboard 200, but only three charted on the Top Country Albums chart).
Carrie Underwood; Photo Credit by Randee St. Nicholas
Underwood’s sales also mark a huge effort in country music as the debut is the largest in the genre in more than three years. The launch of 266,000 units is the biggest for any country act since Luke Bryan’s Kill The Lights debuted in 2015 with 345,000 units.
Additionally, the singer is the top selling female act of 2018, selling more records than Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy in April.
Cry Pretty is the singer’s most personal album to date, with Underwood taking the reins on songwriting and producing.
“I feel like I’ve always been good at writing stories about other people, and not so great writing about myself,” she shared. “I felt like through all the ups and downs of last year, and the beginning of this year, I had to. That’s just what was on my mind and on my heart. I guess I was more self-involved. I don’t know. [I was] dealing with my own crap along the way, and it just made its way in there.”
Cry Pretty is available everywhere now.
