by Taylor Johnson
Contributor
Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away” tour brought close to 6,000 screaming fans to Abbotsford’s Entertainment and Sports Center on Thursday night.
Spectators sang along with Underwood’s high-energy show, featuring stunning lighting, a moving stage and vivid screen displays.
The sold-out performance drew a variety of spectators, from young families to middle-aged couples, groups of young adults and senior citizens.
Underwood delivered something for everyone in the audience, as her music includes high-paced rock, emotional ballads and classic country.
Fans on the floor were on their feet throughout the concert, joined by many up in the seats, and the screaming was non-stop. A few practical jokes by the stage crew, including shooting each other with water and nerf guns, provided light moments.
Underwood’s band consisted of a female back-up singer, and musicians playing an alternating mix of fiddle, keyboards, guitars, bass and drums.
At one point, the stage separated, with a portion carrying Underwood and three of her musicians over the audience.
The final stop on the year-long tour kicked off with Underwood’s high-energy single Good Girl, off the 2012 platinum-selling album, Blown Away, and featured numerous hits from the Billboard’s number one country album chart.
Underwood performed, Jesus, Take the Wheel, and Before He Cheats, from her Some Hearts album, released in 2005. She also performed Cowboy Casanova and Temporary Home from the 2009 Play On album. All three albums topped Billboard, making the singer the second country artist in the chart’s 47-year history to have three consecutive albums debut at number one.
The concert not only entertained the audience, it supported a greater charitable cause. At a point in the show, Underwood announced that one dollar from every ticket sold would go toward the Red Cross and their efforts. She proudly noted that her tour had donated $1 million in total. American shows sponsored the American Red Cross, while performances in Canada sponsored the Canadian Red Cross.
Over the course of her extremely successful career, Underwood has sold over 15 million albums and had 17 number one singles. She has received numerous awards and nominations since her debut in 2005, including the Academy of Country Music’ s Entertainer of the Year, Top Female Vocalist, Top New Female Vocalist, nine American Country Music Awards, six People’s Choice awards and in 2010 a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, which she recorded and co-wrote.
