Most modern English speakers encounter "thou" predominantly in the works of Shakespeare, in the works of other medieval and early modern writers, and in the King James Bible.^[1][2]

The word thou ( /ðaʊ/ in most dialects) is a second person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in almost all contexts by you. It is used in parts of Northern England and by Scots. Thou is the nominative form; the oblique/objective form is thee (functioning as both accusative and dative), and the possessive is thy or thine. Almost all verbs following thou have the endings -st or -est; e.g., "thou goest". In Middle English, thou was sometimes abbreviated by putting a small "u" over the letter thorn: þͧ.

Originally, thou was simply the singular counterpart to the plural pronoun ye, derived from an ancient Indo-European root. Following a process found in other Indo-European languages, thou was later used to express intimacy, familiarity or even disrespect, while another pronoun, you, the oblique/objective form of ye, was used for formal circumstances (see T–V distinction). In the 17th century, thou fell into disuse in the standard language but persisted, sometimes in altered form, in regional dialects of England and Scotland,^[3] as well as in the language of such religious groups as the Society of Friends. Early English translations of the Bible used thou and never you as the singular second-person pronoun, with the double effect of rescuing thou from complete obscurity and also imbuing it with an air of religious solemnity that is antithetical to its former sense of familiarity or disrespect.^[2] The use of the pronoun was also common in poetry.

The fact that early English translations of the Bible used the familiar form of the second person in no way indicates "disrespect" and is not surprising. The familiar form is used when speaking to God, at least in French, German, Spanish, Dutch and Scottish Gaelic (all of which maintain the use of an "informal" singular form of the second person in modern speech).

In standard modern English, thou continues to be used only in formal religious contexts, in literature that seeks to reproduce archaic language and in certain fixed phrases such as "holier than thou" and "fare thee well". For this reason, many associate the pronoun with solemnity or formality. Many dialects have compensated for the lack of a singular/plural distinction caused by the disappearance of thou and ye through the creation of new plural pronouns or pronominal constructions, such as you all, y'all, yinz, youse, you ens, you lot, your lot and you guys. These vary regionally and are usually restricted to colloquial speech.

Grammar[link]

Because thou has passed out of common use, its traditional forms are often confused by those attempting to imitate older manners of speech.

Declension[link]

The English personal pronouns have standardised declension according to the following table:^{[citation needed]}

1. ^ ^{a b} The possessive forms were used as genitives before words beginning with a vowel sound and letter h (e.g. thine eyes, mine heire). Otherwise, "my" and "thy" are attributive (my/thy goods) and "mine" and "thine" are predicative (they are mine/thine). Shakespeare pokes fun at this custom with an archaic plural for eyes when the character Bottom says "mine eyen" in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
2. ^ ^{a b} From the early Early Modern English period up until the 17th century, his was the possessive of the third person neuter it as well as of the third person masculine he. Genitive "it" appears once in the 1611 King James Bible (Leviticus 25:5) as groweth of it owne accord.

Conjugation[link]

Verb forms used after thou generally end in -st or -est in the indicative mood in both the present and the past tenses. These forms are used for both strong and weak verbs.

Typical examples of the standard present and past tense forms follow. The e in the ending is optional; early English spelling had not yet been standardized. In verse, the choice about whether to use the e often depended upon considerations of meter.

• to know: thou knowest, thou knewest
• to drive: thou drivest, thou drovest
• to make: thou makest, thou madest
• to love: thou lovest, thou lovedest

A few verbs have irregular thou forms:

• to be: thou art (or thou beest), thou wast (or thou wert; originally thou were)
• to have: thou hast, thou hadst
• to do: thou dost /dʌst/ (or thou doest in non-auxiliary use) and thou didst
• shall: thou shalt
• will: thou wilt

In old English, the second-person singular verb inflection was -es. This came down unchanged from Indo-European and can be seen in quite distantly related Indo-European languages: Russian знаешь, znayesh, thou knowest; Latin amas, thou lovest. (This is parallel to the history of the third-person form, in Old English -eþ, Russian, знает, znayet, he knoweth, Latin amat he loveth.) The anomalous development from -es to modern English -est, which took place separately at around the same time in the closely related German and Frisian languages, is understood to be caused by an assimilation of the consonant of the pronoun, which often followed the verb. This is most readily observed in German: liebes du > liebstu > liebst du (lovest thou). The three languages belong to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages, of which Frisian is the closest to English.^[4]

Comparison[link]

In the subjunctive and imperative moods, the ending in -(e)st is dropped, although it is generally retained in thou wert, the second-person singular past subjunctive of the verb "to be." The subjunctive forms are used when a statement is doubtful or contrary to fact; as such, they frequently occur after "if" and the poetic "and."

If thou be Johan, I tell it thee, right with a good advice . . .;^[5]

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart . . .^[6]

I do wish thou wert a dog, that I might love thee something . . .^[7]

And thou bring Alexander and his paramour before the Emperor, I'll be Actaeon . . .^[8]

O WERT thou in the cauld blast, . . . I'd shelter thee . . .^[9]

In modern regional English dialects that use thou or some variant, it often takes the third person form of the verb -s. This comes from a merging of Early Modern English second person singular ending -st and third person singular ending -s into -s.

Etymology[link]

Thou originates from Old English þú, and ultimately via Grimm's law from the Proto-Indo-European *tu, with the expected Germanic vowel lengthening in open syllables. Thou is therefore cognate with Icelandic and Old Norse þú, German, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish du, Latin, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Catalan, Italian, Irish, Kurdish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Romanian tu or tú, Greek σύ, (sy), Slavic ты / ty or ти / ti, Armenian դու (dow/du), Hindi तू (tū), Bengali: তুই (tui), Persian تُو‎ (to) and Sanskrit त्वम् (tvam). A cognate form of this pronoun exists in almost every other Indo-European language.^[10] While the Hungarian and Finnish "te" may seem like cognates, they are in fact not, as these languages are Uralic in origin and not from Indo-European stock.

History[link]

þ^u, abbreviation for thou, from Adam and Eve, from a ca. 1415 manuscript, England

In Old English, thou was governed by a simple rule: thou addressed one person, and ye more than one. After the Norman Conquest, which marks the beginning of the French vocabulary influence that characterized the Middle English period, thou was gradually replaced by the plural ye as the form of address for a superior person and later for an equal. For a long time, however, thou remained the most common form for addressing an inferior person.

The practice of matching singular and plural forms with informal and formal connotations is called the T-V distinction, and in English is largely due to the influence of French. This began with the practice of addressing kings and other aristocrats in the plural. Eventually, this was generalized, as in French, to address any social superior or stranger with a plural pronoun, which was felt to be more polite. In French, tu was eventually considered either intimate or condescending (and, to a stranger, potentially insulting), while the plural form vous was reserved and formal.

In the 18th century, Samuel Johnson, in A Grammar of the English Tongue, wrote: "...in the language of ceremony... the second person plural is used for the second person singular," implying that the second person singular was still in everyday use. By contrast, The Merriam Webster Dictionary of English Usage says that for most speakers of southern British English, thou had fallen out of everyday use, even in familiar speech, by sometime around 1650.^[11] Thou persisted in a number of religious, literary and regional contexts, and those pockets of continued use of the pronoun tended to undermine the obsolescence of the T-V distinction. (Samuel Johnson himself was born and raised not in the south of England, but in Lichfield, Staffordshire, where the usage of thou persists until the present day, see below, so it is not surprising that he would consider it entirely ordinary, and describe it as such, as he indeed does in his grammar. This would seem to resolve the apparent contradiction above.)

One notable consequence of the decline in use of the second person singular pronouns thou, thy, and thee is the obfuscation of certain sociocultural elements of Early Modern English texts, such as many character interactions in Shakespeare's plays. In Richard III, for instance, the conversation between the Duke of Clarence and the two murderers takes on a very different tone if it is read in light of the social connotations of the pronouns used by the characters.^[12]

Use as a verb[link]

Many Indo-European languages contain verbs meaning "to address with the informal pronoun," such as Dutch tutoyeren, German duzen, French tutoyer, Spanish tutear, Swedish dua, Russian тыкать (tykat'), Polish tykać, Romanian tutui, etc. Although uncommon in English, the usage did appear, such as at the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603, when Sir Edward Coke, prosecuting for the Crown, reportedly sought to insult Raleigh by saying,

I thou thee, thou traitor!^[13]

here using thou as a verb meaning "to call thee." Although the practice never took root in Standard English, it occurs in dialectal speech in the north of England. A formerly common refrain in Yorkshire for admonishing children who misused the familiar form was:

Don't thee tha them as thas thee! ("Don't thee thou them as thous thee")

And similar in Lancashire dialect:

Don't thee me, thee; I's you to thee! ("Don't thee me, thee [i.e., "you child"]; I'm you to thee!")

Religious uses[link]

As William Tyndale translated the Bible into English in the early 16th century, he sought to preserve the singular and plural distinctions that he found in his Hebrew and Greek originals. Therefore, he consistently used thou for the singular and ye for the plural regardless of the relative status of the speaker and the addressee. By doing so, he probably saved thou from utter obscurity and gave it an air of solemnity that sharply distinguished it from its original meaning.^[2] Tyndale's usage was followed in the King James Bible, and remained familiar because of that translation.^[14]

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which is still an authorized form of worship in the Church of England, also uses the word thou to refer to the singular second person.^[15]

Quakers formerly used thee as an ordinary pronoun; the stereotype has them saying thee for both nominative and accusative cases.^[16] This was started at the beginning of the Quaker movement by George Fox, who called it "plain speaking," as an attempt to preserve the egalitarian familiarity associated with the pronoun. Most Quakers have abandoned this usage. At its beginning, the Quaker movement was particularly strong in the northwestern areas of England and particularly in the north Midlands area. The preservation of thee in Quaker speech may relate to this history.^[17] Modern Quakers who choose to use this manner of "plain speaking" often use the "thee" form without any corresponding change in verb form, for example, is thee or was thee.^[18]

In Latter-day Saint prayer tradition, the terms "thee" and "thou" are always and exclusively used to address God, as a mark of respect.^[19]

In the English translations of the scripture of the Bahá'í Faith, the terms thou and thee are also used. Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, adopted a style that was somewhat removed from everyday discourse when translating the texts from their original Arabic or Persian to capture some of the poetic and metaphorical nature of the text in the original languages and to convey the idea that the text was to be considered holy.^[20]

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which first appeared in 1946, retained the pronoun thou exclusively to address God, using you in other places. This was done to preserve the tone, at once intimate and reverent, that would be familiar to those who knew the King James Version and read the Psalms and similar text in devotional use.^[21] The New American Standard Bible (1971) made the same decision, but the revision of 1995 (New American Standard Bible, Updated edition) reversed it. Similarly, the 1989 Revised English Bible dropped all forms of thou that had appeared in the earlier New English Bible (1970). The New Revised Standard Version (1989) omits thou entirely and claims that it is incongruous and contrary to the original intent of the use of thou in Bible translation to adopt a distinctive pronoun to address the Deity.^[22] When referring to God, "thou" is often capitalized for clarity and reverence. While Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic (the languages of the Bible) do not have a special orthography (such as capitalization) for indicating that the Deity is being referred to, their grammars are more successful than English in making noun/pronoun agreement unambiguous.^{[citation needed]}

Literary uses[link]

Shakespeare[link]

Like his contemporaries William Shakespeare uses thou both in the intimate, French style sense, and also to emphasize differences of rank, but he is by no means consistent in using the word, and friends and lovers sometimes call each other ye or you as often as they call each other thou,^[23][24][25] sometimes in ways that can be analysed for meaning, but often apparently at random.

For example, in the following passage from Henry IV, Shakespeare has Falstaff use both forms while jesting with Prince Henry. First, Falstaff addresses "Hal" as an intimate comrade, emphasizing "you"; then he switches to a facetiously contrasted "thou" for a future majestic but still graceless King.

PRINCE: Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldest truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? …

FALSTAFF: Indeed, you come near me now, Hal … And, I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art a king, as God save thy Grace – Majesty, I should say; for grace thou wilt have none –

More recent uses[link]

Except where everyday use survives in some regions of England, the air of informal familiarity once suggested by the use of thou has disappeared; it is used in solemn ritual occasions, in readings from the King James Bible, in Shakespeare and in formal literary compositions that intentionally seek to echo these older styles. Since becoming obsolete in most dialects of spoken English, it has nevertheless been used by more recent writers to address exalted beings such as God,^[26] a skylark,^[27] Achilles,^[28] and even The Mighty Thor.^[29] In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader addresses the Emperor with the words: "What is thy bidding, my master?" In Leonard Cohen's song "Bird on the Wire," he promises his beloved that he'll reform, saying "I will make it all up to thee." The Kaiser Chiefs song "I Predict a Riot" is mentioned below. In Diana Ross's song "Upside Down" (written by Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards) we hear the lyric "Respectfully I say to thee I'm aware that you're cheatin'." These recent uses of the pronoun suggest something far removed from intimate familiarity or condescension, while they could be seen as mirroring the mode of address used with the Deity in the Bible as discussed above; or in the case of "Upside Down," may simply allow a catchy rhyme.

Most modern writers have no experience using thou in daily speech; they are therefore vulnerable to confusion of the traditional verb forms. The most common mistake in artificially archaic modern writing is the use of the old third person singular ending -eth with thou, for example thou thinketh. The converse—the use of the second person singular ending -est for the third person—also occurs ("So sayest Thor!"—spoken by Thor). This usage often shows up in modern parody and pastiche^[30] in an attempt to make speech appear either archaic or formal. The latter is ironic as thou was historically informal, you being the formal form. The forms thou and thee are often transposed (as in Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose).

In the fictional teenage argot nadsat, invented for Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange (and the film adaptation), Alex and his droogs regularly use "thou," which fits in with their semi-Edwardian clothing. For example, when fighting a rival gang, Alex addresses them thus (note the mixing of "you" and "thou" for the second person):

Well if it isn't fat stinking billygoat Billyboy in poison! How art thou, thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip-oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly thou!^[31]

Some translators render the T-V distinction in English with "thou" and "you," particularly in places where you appears in the place of expected thou, or vice versa. This practice has largely fallen out of use. Ernest Hemingway, in his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, uses the forms "thou" and "you" in order to reflect the relationships between his Spanish-speaking characters and to better represent in English the Spanish language in which both formal (usted) and familiar (tú) second-person pronouns still exist.

In reading passages with thou and thee, many modern readers stress the pronouns and the verb endings. Traditionally, however, the e in -est ought to be unstressed, and thou and thee should be no more stressed than you.

Current usage[link]

You is now the standard English second-person pronoun and encompasses both the singular and plural senses. In some dialects, however, "thou" has persisted,^[32] and in others the vacuum created by the loss of a distinction has led to the creation of new forms of the second-person plural. The forms vary across the English-speaking world and between literature and the spoken language.^[33]

Persistence of second-person singular[link]

In traditional dialects, thou is used in the counties of Westmorland, Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and some western parts of Nottinghamshire.^[34] Such dialects normally also preserve distinct verb forms for the singular second person, for example thee coost (standard English: you could, archaic: thou couldst) in northern Staffordshire. Throughout rural Yorkshire, the old distinction between nominative and objective is preserved.^{[citation needed]} The possessive is often written as thy in local dialect writings, but is pronounced as an unstressed tha, and the possessive form of tha has in modern usage almost exclusively followed other English dialects in becoming yours or the local^[specify] word your'n (from your one):

The apparent incongruity between the archaic nominative, objective and genitive forms of this pronoun on the one hand and the modern possessive form on the other may be a signal that the linguistic drift of Yorkshire dialect is causing tha to fall into disuse; however, a measure of local pride in the dialect may be counteracting this.

Some other variants are specific to certain areas. In Sheffield, the pronunciation of the word was somewhere in between a /d/ and a /th/ sound, with the tongue at the bottom of the mouth; this led to the nickname of the "dee-dahs" for people from Sheffield. In Lancashire and West Yorkshire, ta was used as an unstressed shortening of thou, which can be found in the song "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at." These variants are no longer in use.

In rural North Lancashire between Lancaster and the North Yorkshire border 'tha' is preserved in colloquial phrases such as "What would tha like for tha tea?" (What would you like for dinner),and " 'appen tha waint" ('perhaps you won't'- happen being the dialect word for perhaps) and "tha knows" (you know). This usage in Lancashire is becoming rare, except for elderly and rural speakers.

The use of the word "thee" in the hit song "I Predict a Riot" by Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs ("Watching the people get lairy / is not very pretty, I tell thee") caused some comment^[35] by people who were unaware that the word is still in use in the Yorkshire dialect.

The use persists somewhat in the West Country dialects, albeit somewhat affected. Some of the Wurzels songs include "Drink Up Thy Zider" and "Sniff Up Thy Snuff."^[36]

Thoo has also been used in the Orcadian Scots dialect in place of the singular informal thou. In Shetlandic, the other form of Insular Scots, du is used.

See also[link]

• T–V distinction

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language, 5th ed. ISBN 0-13-015166-1
• Burrow, J. A., Turville-Petre, Thorlac. A Book of Middle English. ISBN 0-631-19353-7
• Daniel, David. The Bible in English: Its History and Influence. ISBN 0-300-09930-4.
• Shorrocks, Graham. "Case Assignment in Simple and Coordinate Constructions in Present-Day English." American Speech, vol. 67, No. 4 (Winter, 1992).
• Smith, Jeremy. A Historical Study of English: Form, Function, and Change. ISBN 0-415-13272-X
• "Thou, pers. pron., 2nd sing." Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1989). [1].
• Trudgill, Peter. (1999) Blackwell Publishing. Dialects of England. ISBN 0-631-21815-7

Further reading[link]

• Brown, Roger and Gilman, Albert. The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity, 1960, reprinted in: Sociolinguistics: the Essential Readings, Wiley-Blackwell, 2003, ISBN 0-631-22717-2, ISBN 780631227175
• Byrne, St. Geraldine. Shakespeare's use of the pronoun of address: its significance in characterization and motivation, Catholic University of America, 1936 (reprinted Haskell House, 1970)
• Quirk, Raymond. Shakespeare and the English Language, in Kenneth Muir and Sam Schoenbaum, eds, A New Companion to Shakespeare Studies*, 1971, Cambridge UP
• Wales, Katie. Personal Pronouns in Present-Day English. ISBN 0-521-47102-8
• Walker, Terry. Thou and you in early modern English dialogues: trials, depositions, and drama comedy, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007, ISBN 90-272-5401-X, 9789027254016

External links[link]

Look up thou, thy, thine, thee, or thyself in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Listen to this article (info/dl)

This audio file was created from a revision of the "Thou" article dated 2007-09-11, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

• A Grammar of the English Tongue by Samuel Johnson - includes description of 18th century use
• Contemporary use of thou in Yorkshire
• Thou: The Maven's Word of the Day
• You/Thou in Shakespeare's Work (archived forum discussion)
• A Note on Shakespeare's Grammar by Seamus Cooney

Christina Perri
Christina Perri in an interview
Background information
Birth name	Christina Judith Perri
Born	(1986-08-19) August 19, 1986 (age 25)
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Pop rock, piano rock, alternative rock, soul
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar
Years active	2010–present
Labels	Atlantic
Website	www.christinaperri.com

Christina Judith Perri (born August 19, 1986)^[1][2] is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Philadelphia. Her song "Jar of Hearts" charted in the United States after it was featured on the Fox television show So You Think You Can Dance in 2010. Rolling Stone named her the "Band of the Week" on October 26, 2010.^[3] On May 10, 2011, Perri's "Jar of Hearts" was featured on Glee (Season 2, Episode 20 "Prom Queen").^[4] Also, on June 27, 2011, Perri's "Jar of Hearts" was featured on Switched at Birth (Season 1, Episode 4 "Dance Amongst Daggers"). One of her songs, "A Thousand Years", has been in the Twilight saga movie Breaking Dawn.

Early life[link]

Perri grew up in Bensalem, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Philadelphia) with her older brother, Nick Perri, who formerly played guitar with Shinedown, Silvertide, Perry Farrell and Matt Sorum.^[5] Her father is from Italy.^[6] She attended Archbishop Ryan High School as a member of the class of 2004.^[7] She taught herself how to play guitar as a 16-year-old by watching a videotape of Shannon Hoon from the group Blind Melon performing on VH1.^[3]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Perri moved to Los Angeles on her 21st birthday. Later that year she got married and began to produce music videos. She divorced 18 months later and moved back to Philadelphia by the end of 2009; during this time she wrote "Jar of Hearts". She moved back to Los Angeles, waitressing at the Melrose Cafe during the day and recording at night.^[3][8]

[edit] 2010–present: Lovestrong.

Perri's song "Jar of Hearts" was featured on So You Think You Can Dance during the June 30, 2010 show.^[9] It was featured in performance by Billy Bell and Kathryn McCormick.^[10] Perri's friend Keltie Colleen passed the song to show choreographer Stacey Tookey; Perri and Colleen watched the performance in the audience.^[9] Following its exposure on the show, "Jar of Hearts" sold 48,000 digital copies, debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 at #63 and reaching #28 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs.^[10] Within a month, it sold more than 100,000 copies.^[8] Then, her music video for "Jar of Hearts" landed on the VH1 top 20 music video countdown.

Shortly after, Perri made her debut on national day time and prime time television, performing the song live on the July 10, 2010 episode of The Early Show on CBS as well as the July 15, 2010 episode of So You Think You Can Dance^[8] Perri signed a deal with Atlantic Records on July 21, 2010.^[11] Roadrunner Records continue to promote "Jar of Hearts" on the radio.^[12] Perri appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on July 29, 2010 and Conan on December 7, 2010 where she played "Jar of Hearts." In addition, "Jar of Hearts" was on the show Pretty Little Liars. "Arms" was also in the ABC Family movie Teen Spirit. Perri recorded an EP named The Ocean Way Sessions that was released on November 9, 2010.^[13]

Perri singing "Distance" (left) and "Jar of Hearts" (right) at the lovestrong. tour in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Perri's debut album is titled lovestrong. and was released on May 10, 2011. It follows the release of "Arms", its lead single, released on March 15. She appeared on Late Show with David Letterman, playing her song "Arms." "Arms" was used in the August 26, 2011 episode of The Bold and the Beautiful and has also been used in TV spots for the Fall 2011 season of Investigation Discovery's show "Disappeared."

Perri's single, "A Thousand Years," appeared on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn's movie soundtrack.

On November 1, 2011 Perri appeared on ABC's Dancing With The Stars Results show to perform her song "Arms". On 13 November 2011, she also performed "Jar of Hearts" on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing results show. On February 19, she performed "Jar of Hearts" in the pre-fight buildup to Vitali Klitschko vs. Derek Chisora World Heavyweight Championship boxing contest in Munich.

On 29th January 2012, Perri performed Jar of Hearts live on UK ITV's Dancing on Ice show, with Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in a specially choreographed routine.

She will be joining Jason Mraz in his tour across continental North America in 2012. Perri also announced that she will be releasing her second studio album in Spring 2013.

On 22nd April 2012, Perri performed live on Australia's Dancing with the Stars.

Discography[link]

EP[link]

• The Ocean Way Sessions (2010)

Albums[link]

• Lovestrong (2011)

References[link]

Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood at the 2010 Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards.
Background information
Birth name	Carrie Marie Underwood
Born	(1983-03-10) March 10, 1983 (age 29) Muskogee, Oklahoma
Origin	Checotah, Oklahoma, United States
Genres	Country, country pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, actress
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	2005–present
Labels	19, Arista Nashville, Arista
Associated acts	Brad Paisley, Randy Travis, Tony Bennett
Website	www.carrieunderwoodofficial.com

Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer, songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a winner of several Grammy Awards, Billboard Music Awards and American Music Awards, a Golden Globe Award nominee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and a two-time ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first-ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/10). Underwood was inducted into and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2009.^[1] Billboard named Underwood Country Music's reigning Queen in 2012.^[2]

Her debut album, Some Hearts, was certified seven times platinum and, since February 2006, is the fastest selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history.^[3] It is also the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history, since February 2008,^[4] and, since March 2011, the best-selling country album of the last 10 years.^[5] Some Hearts yielded three number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs. Her second album, Carnival Ride, was released on October 23, 2007. It has sold over 3 million copies as of January 2010,^[6] being certified 3 times Platinum,^[7] and produced four consecutive number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. Underwood released her third album, Play On, on November 3, 2009. It has been certified 2 times Platinum by the RIAA^[7] and has produced three consecutive number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. As of March 2012, Underwood has sold over 22 million singles^[8] and more than 14 million albums worldwide.^[9] As of May 16, 2011, Underwood became the "American Idol" US Top Earner, selling so far 12.4 million album copies and 19 million digital tracks,^[10] along with amassing $66 million in tour revenues, since winning Season 4.^[11] Underwood's fourth album, Blown Away, was released on May 1, 2012.

With eleven number one hits on Billboard Hot Country Songs, Underwood is listed in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records as the Female Country Artist with Most number one Hits on such chart from 1991 to present, tied with Reba McEntire.^[12] Underwood is also the only solo Country Artist to have a number one hit on Billboard Hot 100 Songs in the 2000 decade, as "Inside Your Heaven" reached the top of the chart in July 2005. Her album Some Hearts was named the Best Country Album of the 2000 Decade by Billboard,^[13] and she's the only Female Artist to appear on the Top 10 of Billboard's Best Country Artists of the 2000 Decade list, ranked at number ten.^[14] She was also ranked number 50 on the Artists of the Decade list by Billboard.^[15] In June 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Underwood as the number eleven Queen of Pop, based on a lot of criteria from 2009 until 2011.^[16] In July 2011, Forbes reported that Underwood earned over $20 million between May 2010 and May 2011.^[17]

Early life[link]

Underwood was born to Stephen and Carole Underwood on March 10, 1983, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She was raised on her parents' farm in the rural town of Checotah, Oklahoma.^[18] Her father worked in a sawmill, while her mother taught elementary school.^[19] She has two older sisters, Shanna and Stephanie.^[20] During her childhood, Underwood performed at Robbins Memorial Talent Show, and sang at her local church, First Free Will Baptist Church.^[21] She later sang for local events in Checotah, including Old Settler's Day and the Lion's Club.^[22]

A local admirer arranged for her to go to Nashville when she was 14 to audition for Capitol Records.^[21] In 1996, Capitol Records was preparing a contract for Underwood but cancelled it when company management changed. Underwood said of the event, "I honestly think it's a lot better that nothing came out of it now, because I wouldn't have been ready then. Everything has a way of working out."^[23] While at Checotah High School, she was an Honor Society member, a cheerleader, and played basketball and softball.^[24] Underwood graduated from Checotah High School in 2001 as salutatorian.^[22] She chose not to pursue singing after graduation. She said, "After high school, I pretty much gave up on the dream of singing. I had reached a point in my life where I had to be practical and prepare for my future in the 'real world'".^[24] She attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, graduating magna cum laude in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in mass communication and an emphasis in journalism.^[25] She spent part of one of her summers as a page for Oklahoma State Representative Bobby Frame.^[26] She also waited tables at a pizzeria, worked at a zoo, and at a veterinary clinic.^[24] Underwood is an alumna of the Alpha Iota chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority.^[27] For two years during the summer, she performed in Northeastern State University's Downtown Country show in Tahlequah. She also competed in numerous beauty pageants at the university and was selected as Miss NSU runner-up in 2004.^[28]

[edit] American Idol

In the summer of 2004, Underwood auditioned for American Idol in St. Louis, Missouri. After she sang "Could've Been" by Tiffany on the top 12 girls night, judge Simon Cowell commented that she would be one of the favorites to win the competition.  During the top 11 finalists' performance on the March 22, 2005, Idol episode, Underwood sang a rendition of the number one 1980s rock hit "Alone", made famous by Heart, and Cowell predicted that Underwood would not only win the competition, but she would also outsell all previous Idol winners.^[29] One of the show's producers later said she dominated the voting, winning each week handily.^[30] She gained a fan base known as "Carrie's Care Bears" during the course of the show. During the final, she sang with Rascal Flatts their song "Bless the Broken Road". On May 5, 2005, Underwood became the season four winner. Her winnings included a recording contract worth at least a million dollars, use of a private jet for a year, and a Ford Mustang convertible.^[31]

Performances and results[link]