Carrie Underwood on Female Cry Pretty Tour 360: 'These Artists Are Very Talented'

Carrie Underwood's all-female Cry Pretty Tour 360 includes both Maddie & Tae and Runaway June as her opening acts. While many have claimed that Underwood's intent was to give female artists a platform – and that sentiment isn't incorrect – that's not all that motivated Underwood to pick the two rising stars.

"I'm the kind of person who's competitive, who wants to put on the best show I can," Underwood told Pollstar. "That's a lot of what I'm thinking about. I want to support talent, and yes, they're all women, but these artists are very talented at what they do."

"You look at my audience, you see tons of little girls," she continued. "Why wouldn't they want to see other super-talented young women?"

Underwood's Cry Pretty Tour 360 is a massive undertaking for any artist, even a superstar like herself. With 11 buses, 407 moving lights and 142 audio speaker cabinets, Underwood has had a hand in every detail, carefully choosing everything, while paying meticulous attention to her setlist.

"I want the hits in there, the songs people have been singing for 13 years," Underwood said.
"But every song from Cry Pretty is in there, too. Some may only be a quick snippet while I'm changing, 30 seconds, but the album is part of it.

"We're going to start off fun, and be entertaining," she added. "We won't hit them over the head until the middle. Then we're going to end in an uptempo, uplifting way. Last tour, it was 'Something In The Water.' This tour, it's going to be 'Love Wins.'"

Maren Morris also has an all-female Girl: The World Tour, while Miranda Lambert will launch her women-only Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour this fall. Underwood is grateful for other women also taking a stand but says it needs to be more balanced.

"I feel like it's all of our responsibility, the men as well as the women," Underwood maintained. "Throughout history women have been a big part of our format – and it's up to us to make sure the woman's voice doesn't die out."

Underwood hasn't toured in three years, since her Storyteller Tour, which is why she is more eager than ever to spend the next several months on the road.

"I think my favorite thing about performing live is just getting kind of lost in the music and the show," Underwood shared. "I have as much fun as hopefully everybody sitting out in the audience is having. I get to connect with the fans. I get to see people. The people that are streaming music and downloading music and buying albums, they're finally in front of me.

"To get to have that moment with them is so much fun," she added. "The lights and the costumes and getting to have moments with my band members on stage, I mean it's all a lot of fun."

Photo Credit: Getty Images/John Shearer