In 2018, Carrie Underwood shared her plans to release a new album. In the lead-up to its release, she talked about personal it was.
Later, we learned that Underwood experienced the loss of three babies while she was working on her album. Her music captured the feelings of pain and heartache she was coping with at that time.
Those emotions can best be felt in the album’s title track, “Cry Pretty.” The song has Underwood singing about how she has to put on a brave face even though she’s hurting inside. But once she’s able to let her emotions loose, she sings how the result is never “pretty.”
“Cry Pretty” connected with fans on a deep level, so everyone was anxious to hear its namesake album. The record finally dropped on September 14, 2018, and was met with high praise.
Underwood’s stamp was left all over the album, as she co-wrote many of its songs and also served as co-producer. This was her first time producing one of her own albums, but by doing so, she ensured it had an even more personal feeling.
So it surely meant a lot to Underwood when Cry Pretty hit #1 on the Top Country Albums chart and the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.
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Now, just a little over a year after its release, Cry Pretty has earned a distinction that is only bestowed on a few albums. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA.
In order to be certified Platinum, a record has to sell over one million units. In this day and age where streaming is the main means of consuming music, it is more challenging for records to reach this status.
But Cry Pretty got there, and Underwood was surprised with the news while she was speaking at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville on February 21.
Underwood instantly got emotional when she was presented with the Platinum album, and could be seen wiping tears away from her eyes. Once she got the chance to speak, she made it clear how much this honor means to her:
“This means a lot, ’cause I feel like this is the project that I’ve done, and the album that I’ve done, that is the most ‘me,'” she said, according to ABC News Radio.
She went on to praise God, saying, “I’m honored and I’m humbled and God is good.”
You can watch the touching moment that Underwood was surprised with her Platinum Cry Pretty plaque by tuning in to the clip below. Congratulations to her!