Carrie Underwood rocked some retro attire during an event for the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards event in Las Vegas, Nevada this past Friday.
The 36-year-old who is set to perform at tonight’s ceremony airing live on ABC and hosted by Reba McEntire, was seen over the weekend in celebration of the awards with fellow country star and The Voice alum, Cassadee Pope at the Cumulus/Westwood One Radio Remotes.
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Underwood wore a pair of light blue denim Levi’s overall bibs with a retro Wham! sweatshirt underneath. The Wham! sweatshirt pays homage to the country star’s admiration and love for the late George Michael, whom she says, “has always been such an influence on me.”
According to The Tennessean, Underwood will be on stage for two performances — one being the emotional group performance (Lauren Alaina, Mickey Guyton, Maddie & Tae and This Is Us star, Chrissy Metz) of “I’m Standing With You” from the movie, Breakthrough; and the other being her own single “Southbound” from the record, Cry Pretty.
The single is sure to give the crowd a high-energy spin, but Underwood tells the publication she knows her sound and tone is not exactly fans think of when they imagine “party vibes.”
“The performance is all about this party vibe and getting me into the audience, which is another thing that is a little bit new for me,” Underwood said. “I watch performers like Keith Urban and Brad Paisley doing their thing going through the audience and I’m like, ‘How do you do that?’ It stresses me out.”
But don’t think the stress will knock the 34-year-old out. The mother-of-two says the stress is worth it for the effect she is hoping to bring with the vibrant performance.
“So much of awards shows is us standing on stage, and there’s this separation, and I want to get in there,” she said.
Underwood recalls the process of writing her new single was something out of character for her, admitting that the up-tempo track was the last song she had written for the record, with a thought that she wanted to definitely add some diversity to the overall sound.
“I knew I needed something that was a little more fun because I felt like we had a lot of serious moments and a lot of emotion and I wanted that levity,” she said. “I hate going in with an agenda when we’re writing, but that was the last piece of the puzzle we knew I needed.”
Underwood is nominated for Female Artist of the Year, which will air live from MGM Grand’s Garden Arena in Las Vegas 8 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS.
Photo credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
