A little over three weeks before the Super Bowl, Carrie Underwood debuted her brand-new song “The Champion.” As the voice of Sunday Night Football for the past several years, Underwood was approached by the NFL to craft a special song for the 2018 Super Bowl, and that’s how “The Champion” came to be.
Underwood wrote “The Champion” along with the rapper Ludacris, who is also featured on the song. Brett James and Chris DeStefano were the other two co-writers on the track.
While the inspirational song was intended to be a sports anthem (it will also be used for NBC’s broadcast of the Winter Olympics), Underwood said it was written with the intention of celebrating everyday people as well:
“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,” she said during an interview. “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.”
Fans finally got the chance to see the accompanying video to “The Champion” prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday (February 4). The intro video was a huge hit with those who tuned in, and sales for “The Champion” started to soar almost immediately.
During the broadcast of the big game, “The Champion” shot up on iTunes from the 14th spot on the songs chart to the first. As of press time, it remains in the top spot on that chart. According to Nielsen, “The Champion” sold 16,000 digital copies on Super Bowl Sunday alone.
As the Super Bowl halftime performer, you would think that Justin Timberlake would be the one topping the iTunes songs chart, but that’s not the case. He did experience a sales boost thanks to the Super Bowl, but even his best-selling song from his set only sold half as much as “The Champion” on Sunday.
In addition, “The Champion” managed to surpass Timberlake to take the top spot on the iTunes songs chart. Prior to the Super Bowl, Timberlake was at the top spot with his new song, “Say Something,” which features Chris Stapleton. As of press time, that song now sits at the second spot, while Timberlake has three other songs in the top ten.
The numbers don’t lie folks…Underwood was the true MVP of the Super Bowl this year. You can tune in below to catch the video that sparked the song’s major sales boost.
Since “The Champion” will be used for the Olympics as well, we predict that Underwood will see some serious sales numbers for the rest of the month!
