Carrie Underwood’s Before He Cheats is one of the most iconic songs in her catalogue and also one of the baddest country breakup songs ever. It’s a powerful revenge song with a lot of property damage and a message that would make him think before he cheats again. This song earned Underwood even more popularity after winning the 4th season of American Idol and cemented her place as a top-tier musician and performer of her generation.
Written by Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins, Before He Cheats was the third single from Carrie Underwood‘s 2005 debut studio album Some Hearts. In an interview with The Boot, the songwriters said they started off with the words’ Right Now’ and two lines that Chris worked on and from there, the song was born.
They also revealed that this song was originally meant for Gretchen Wilson, who was on top of the music charts at that time. But it so happened that Carrie Underwood received a demo of the song, and after one listen, she decided to cut the song. There was no on hold or time to sit at it first, it was an immediate decision to record the song.
Although Carrie knew she wanted that song, there were still worries that she would receive fan backlash from the message of the song. As Josh and Kris said, the song was full of things that most people would say they shouldn’t have put in a song. But the final decision to still put the song out was one of Carrie’s best decisions in her career. The song, which was initially intended to be humorous and lighthearted, was transformed into a scorching song of revenge that totally drove it home.
That was why it was no surprise that the song earned not only the love of many DJs and the public but also enormous crossover success. When the song was released, it immediately peaked on the charts. It was number one for 5 weeks on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and also reached number 5 on Billboard’s Adult Top 40. Not to mention that it also breached the Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 at number 10.
This genre-defying country hit also ranked at number 8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and spent 64 weeks on the chart, making it the 6th longest-charting single in history. Now, it’s certified 6x Platinum by the RIAA.
It just wasn’t the charts that they dominated. During the 50th Grammy Awards, it also bagged the Best Female Country Vocal Performance and the Best Country Song awards. In 2007, it also won the Single of the Year in the Country Music Association Awards. The music video directed by Roman White also swept awards during the 2007 CMT Music Awards bagging Video of the Year, Female Video of the Year, and Director of the Year.
In the 2008 Grammy Awards, Carrie Underwood performed the song along with the cast of Stomp. And three years later after its release, the song still won the Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance, grounded upon the song’s continued prominence over the years.
Carrie Underwood’s Before He Cheats is definitely one of the top 10 Carrie Underwood songs that you should listen to. Don’t miss out on something great, so go ahead and watch the music video below. You will never regret it.
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Carrie Underwood