CARRIE UNDERWOOD'S "THE CHAMPION" TO OPEN NBC'S SUPER BOWL LII SHOW THIS SUNDAY, FEB. 4 ON NBC

"The Champion" Reaches No. 1 on iTunes Top Songs in All Genres Upon Release Earlier This Month

STAMFORD, Conn. - January 29, 2018 - Seven-time Grammy Award-winner and multi-platinum recording artist Carrie Underwood's "The Champion" will open NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl LII this Sunday, Feb. 4. The hit song, which features Ludacris, was released earlier this month (http://strm.to/TheChampionPR).

The opening video for the anthemic song, which was filmed last year, will honor the rich legacy of the event featuring Super Bowl moments on a grand scale with cameos from NFL all-time greats.

"The Champion" reached #1 on the iTunes Top Songs chart (all genres) in nine countries shortly after its January 12 release. The song also debuted on multiple global Spotify charts.

Underwood co-wrote "The Champion" last year with fellow songwriters Brett James, Chris DeStefano, and Christopher Bridges PKA Ludacris, who Underwood asked to collaborate on the event song produced by Jim Jonsin. Underwood has been the face and voice of the show open for primetime television's #1 program, Sunday Night Football, for the past five seasons and is currently in the studio working on her next album which will be released on Capitol Records Nashville.

Tripp Dixon is creative director of the Super Bowl LII show open. NBC's coverage of Super Bowl LII kicks off at Noon ET this Sunday from U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn.

About Carrie Underwood:

Carrie Underwood emerged from the promise of her 2005 American Idol win to become a true multi-format, multi-media superstar, spanning achievements in music, television, and film. A seven-time GRAMMY(R) Award winner, she has amassed over 100 major honors, sold 64 million records worldwide, and recorded 26 #1 singles, 13 of which she co-wrote, with a catalog of songs that have been streamed more than 2.6 billion times worldwide. The first female artist to be twice named the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year, Underwood was recognized by Pollstar as the top female country touring artist for each of her headlining tours in 2008, 2010, 2012, and for 2016's "The Storyteller Tour - Stories in the Round." Carrie also topped Billboard's Top 25 Tours of 2016 as the leading female country artist and was the leading female artist on Country Aircheck's top country radio performers list for her success in both 2015 and 2016. All five studio albums, Some Hearts, Carnival Ride, Play On, Blown Away, and Storyteller - are certified Platinum or multi-Platinum, and each an American Music Awards winner as Favorite Country Album - and tallied an incredible 40 weeks at #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. The RIAA's highest certified country album artist to debut this century, Underwood also holds the distinction of the highest album certification of any country artist to emerge since 2000 with the 8x Multi-Platinum success of her 2005 debut, Some Hearts. She is the all-time Top Country Artist (male or female) on RIAA's Digital Single Ranking, also placing her among the Top 5 females in the history of RIAA's Digital Single Program across all genres. In December of 2014, she released her Platinum-certified Greatest Hits: Decade #1, which produced two new #1 hits co-written by Underwood, including the RIAA-Platinum, GRAMMY-winning "Something in the Water." The Grand Ole Opry member demonstrated her creative diversity in 2013 starring as Maria von Trapp in NBC's three-hour holiday blockbuster, the Emmy(R)-winning The Sound of Music Live!, whose airings attracted 44 million viewers. Her latest chart-topping platinum fifth studio album, Storyteller, produced four #1 hits. Last November, Underwood co-hosted the CMA Awards for the tenth consecutive year and she has been the face and voice of the show open for primetime television's #1 program, Sunday Night Football, for the past five seasons.