Artist Snapshots (3-19-13)

Carrie Underwood continued to spread country music around the globe by taking her international “Blown Away Tour” to Ireland and to the United Kingdom. Her sold-out dates in Dublin and Belfast were not only her debut performances, but also marked her first visit to the countries of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Underwood wrapped up her trip in London by closing the “C2C:Country To Country” Festival at the O2 Arena.

At the sold-out Belfast show at Waterfront Hall during St. Patrick’s Day weekend, Underwood invited a couple who happen to be some of her biggest Irish fans onto the stage where the gentleman proposed to his girlfriend of 10 years. As Underwood and the teary audience looked on, his girlfriend said yes to thunderous applause from the enthusiastic crowd.

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Back in the States, Luke Bryan entertained over 75,000 fans at the Houston Rodeo. It marked Bryan’s first performance at the Houston Rodeo as a headliner and the largest crowd of his career. At the close of the show, the rodeo reported that this was the second-largest crowd in their history.
“I may have said it last year,” Bryan said from the rodeo stage, “but I grew up dreaming of playing the Houston Rodeo. To sell this place out on a Saturday night is a country boy’s dream!”

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More than 40,000 people from over 35 countries joined the Jason Crabb Love Is Stronger CD Release Celebration held recently at Free Chapel, where Pastor Jentezen Franklin welcomed Jason Crabb along with special guests, producers Jay DeMarcus (of Rascal Flatts) and Wayne Haun, and New York Times Bestselling Author Andy Andrews.
A very special moment came when producers of the project, DeMarcus and  Haun were asked to join Crabb onstage for a look behind the making of the project, Love Is Stronger.