American Idol 2025: New judge Carrie Underwood looks back on her audition in 2005
Carrie Underwood has come full circle as she takes a seat next to Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie on the American Idol judges panel for season 23. The country superstar won season 4, 20 years ago in 2005. In a new web series, Idol to Icon, that will run alongside the new season, Carrie will revisit her full Idol journey.
In the first episode, Carrie watches her American Idol audition back, 20 years later. With her mother’s encouragement, Carrie auditioned in St. Louis along with thousands of fellow hopefuls. She made it to the judges auditions where producers traveled to her family’s farm in Oklahoma to film her everyday life which included feeding the cows. She confessed on camera that she’d never flown on an airplane. “I want to go to Hollywood so bad!” she said at the time.
Carrie chose a Bonnie Raitt song for her audition because she knew Simon Cowell hated country music
For her audition, Carrie sang the Bonnie Raitt classic, “I Can’t Make You Love Me” for judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. In a split screen watching the clip, modern-day Carrie observes, “I don’t move my hands for anything!” She admits when Simon cut her off with a “very good,” she wondered, “Why did he cut me off!” Carrie agrees with Randy’s critique that she needed to work on her stage presence. “I’m still working on it!” she quips.
Carrie reveales that she decided not to sing a country song for her audition because she knew Simon “hated” country music, a thing even an executive producer reminded her about. But after the audition, she was encouraged when Simon urged her to keep being herself. “He deserves a lot of credit for that…he saw a country artist and the value a country artist has.”
Carrie knows her contestant number by heart
Part of her inability to move while she sang came from trying to keep her emotions together as she gathered the courage to sing in front of the judges and millions of people on the other side of the camera. “I was a baby, I was 21 years old,” she says, noting that now that she’s a judge, she sees hopefuls walking in and can relate to their fears and insecurities.
She marvels at how the decision to audition for American Idol completely altered the trajectory of her life. However, she jokes about how winning American Idol allowed her to travel the world on tour and recording albums, only to lead her back to the farm life she lives today with her husband Mike Fisher and two sons. “I love my life so much now,” she says, “I get the best of both worlds.”
Carrie recites her contestant number “14887” ading that “It’s tattooed in my brain. I should actually get a tattoo of that somewhere on my body.”
The video clip ends with Carrie reading from the journal she kept at the time. It’s an emotional moment for her.
The next episode of From Idol to Icon premieres in April. Meanwhile, American Idol season 23 kicks off on Sunday March 9 at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC, streaming on HULU next day.
