Carrie Underwood has been part of country music for 20 years, impressing people, including other artists, with her astonishing vocal abilities. While plenty of artists would love to sing with Underwood, she is understandably quite picky about who she will, and will not, sing with on a song.
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Stil, there are a few artists who have been fortunate enough to release a song with the superstar, helping her career as well. We picked four of our favorite of Underwood's career-defining duets.
1. "If I Didn't Love You" With Jason Aldean
The angst in "If I Didn't Love You" is palpable in the song, released by Aldean in 2021, from his Macon, Georgia album. Aldean band members Tully Kennedy and Kurt Allison penned the song, along with John Morgan and Bernardis Hughes.
"Jason asked if I would sing 'If I Didn't Love You' with him," Underwood recalls (via Audacy). "I knew I liked the song, and Jason and I have actually been kind of trying to do things together over the years. We've sung together before, but we've never officially recorded anything together. It just kind of felt like this could be our moment.
"I felt like it was a little bit of an unexpected duet to other people," she adds. "But I feel like I kind of always knew at some point I'd probably sing with him officially. ... The stars were aligning, and it just seemed like it was going to be the perfect fit."
2. "I'm Gonna Love You" With Cody Johnson
When Cody Johnson heard "I'm Gonna Love You," he said he would only record it if he could sing it with Underwood. It was a long shot, since Underwood admits she doesn't typically do love songs. Even more importantly, Underwood was pitched the song years before by Travis Denning, one of the writers on it, and passed.
But when Johnson reached out, the timing was right, and the two recorded the song, for the 2024 deluxe edition of his Leather album.
"I thought it was a beautiful song, but I felt like it might be better for a male artist to sing," Underwood tells Billboard, recalling when Denning first pitched it to her in 2016. "Plus it didn't really fit with the direction of where my new album at the time was going."
Fortunately, the timing was right, and the song became one of Underwood's numerous massive No. 1 hits.
3. "The Champion" With Ludacris
Underwood stepped way out of the genre of country music for this song, but it was for a very good reason. Underwood sings the song with Ludacris, who also wrote the song with Underwood, along with Chris DeStefano and Brett James. The song was used for NBC's television broadcast of Super Bowl LII in 2018. It was also used for the Winter Olympics, held the same year.
"When we were writing 'The Champion,' our main focus was to celebrate athletes at the top of their game, but we also wanted the song to resonate with people in their everyday lives," Underwood says (via MusicRow). "We hope the lyrics will inspire people to push themselves beyond their limits to conquer anything they are trying to accomplish or overcome. There's a champion in every single one of us!"
4. "Remind Me" With Brad Paisley
"Remind Me" is Underwood's first true duet, and it was with one of her good friends. Underwood and Brad Paisley teamed up for "Remind Me" in 2011. The song is from Paisley's This Is Country Music album. Interestingly, Paisley had Sheryl Crow sing the female part for the demo of the song, which was still a work in progress when Underwood heard it for the first time.
"They were still changing lines," Underwood remembers (via Songfacts). "It was the most unorganized thing I had ever been a part of. I had never done anything like that before. It all worked out so perfectly. I was so happy - I felt like that was given to us. I was so excited about the song once the words became established."
