Carrie Underwood
News

The winner of the fourth season of American Idol, Carrie Underwood, is scheduled to perform will perform on "CMA Music Festival: Country Music's Biggest Party."

The show will air tonight, at 9 on ABC. Country music's new "it girl" will showcase her outstanding vocal talent and down-home charm along with the likes of Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley, Hank Williams Jr., Wynonna Judd and other country stars.

Also performing tonight? Southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd, who have been gravitating to the sounds of Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson and other country acts these days. It's not like the Skynyrd of old was averse to country music, the band says, just that back in the day, the line between country and rock was more pronounced then.

"What country music is these days is pretty much what Lynyrd Skynyrd has been for the last 30 years," frontman Johnny Van Zant said. "We've done shows with Tim McGraw, Hank Williams Jr., Montgomery Gentry. We just got off the road with Gretchen Wilson."

Sadly, Carrie's closest Idol competition and devout Skynyrd fan Bo Bice will not be in attendance. At least we haven't heard otherwise.

We might have ranked her two spots higher, but we're a tad biased. In any case, Carrie Underwood, the 23-year old Oklahoma singing sensation who rose to fame on American Idol, was ranked the third-hottest country singer in a reader poll conducted by Country Weekly magazine.

The only crooners to top Carrie were the venerable Faith Hill, 38, and Sara Evans, 35. Rounding out the top five were Martina McBride and Shania Twain.

Carrie recently won a pair of Academy of Country Music Awards, taking home Single Record of the Year honors for "Jesus, Take the Wheel" as well as the award for Best New Female Artist. She was also named to Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25" list along with American Idol's first-ever winner, Kelly Clarkson.