Carrie Underwood performs at Oracle Arena in Oakland on May 17, 2019. Mike DeWald/STAFF.

This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune.

Wearing the same dress she donned at the 2006 Country Music Association Awards, Carrie Underwood poses for photographs with her fans at Madame Tussaud’s in New York. To demonstrate how far she has come since winning “American Idol” in 2005, she is surrounded by the likes of Beyonce, Madonna, Christina Aguilera — and Elvis Presley.

This scene is at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Adding to the accolades, awards, album-sale records and nine No. 1 hits, Underwood has her very own wax figure that she christened last month.

The 25-year-old singer-songwriter, tapped to co-host the 42nd annual CMA Awards on Wednesday, brings her “Carnival Ride” tour to the Oakland Arena on Saturday.

“Coming off ‘Idol,’ everybody has a decent-selling first album. But being able to sustain that, that’s the hard part,” said Underwood in a recent telephone interview. “I’m very lucky.”

Raised in rural Oklahoma, Underwood began singing at an early age: in a church choir; at school; in summer competitions. Her voice didn’t go unnoticed. When she was 14, she nearly got a contract with Capital Records. The deal fell through in a corporate reshuffle and Underwood believed she’d never get another chance.

“I am one of those people that’s kind of, like, what’s meant to be will be,” she said. “I’m a very practical person. I wasn’t the kind of person who was going to drop anything and move to Nashville to try to ‘make it.’”

In college, the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority girl competed in beauty and talent pageants and was runner-up Miss Northeastern State University in 2004. She went to college to pursue a broadcast journalism degree, something she accomplished after winning “Idol.”

“I took advertising classes, I took PR classes, I wrote for the school newspaper, I was on the school television show,” Underwood said. “I think I could have double-majored in something else because I took so many classes. I imagined myself moving to Tulsa and trying to get my foot in the door somewhere.”

Instead, she applied for “American Idol” on a whim in the summer before her final term in school after she saw contestants sleeping outside an arena on television.

Underwood blew away the show’s fourth season competition. Two months before she was named the winner in May 2005, judge Simon Cowell predicted that she would outsell all previous Idol winners.

Her debut album, “Some Hearts,” was released six months later and proved Cowell a fortune teller. It went on to sell more than 7 million copies and five singles, including “Jesus, Take the Wheel” and “Before He Cheats,” reached the top spot on the Billboard Country charts.

Underwood’s first album became the best-selling solo female debut album in country music history. It garnered two Grammy Awards and Underwood won for Best New Artist.

For her follow-up, 2007’s “Carnival Ride,” Underwood decided she wanted to try her hand at songwriting. She got together with her writing team and out of that came four songs that she co-wrote: “So Small,” “Last Name,” “Crazy Dreams” and “All-American Girl.”

“Carnival Ride” won two Grammy Awards and has sold nearly 3 million copies. Four songs, three co-written by Underwood, reached the top spot on the country charts.

At Wednesday’s CMA Awards, at which Underwood was nominated for female vocal and album of the year, she also co-hosted with country music star Brad Paisley.

“(Hosting) is definitely something new,” she said. “I might get to put my broadcast journalism degree to good use!”

Underwood’s celebrity status also has soared. She has been voted as PETA’s “World’s Sexiest Vegetarian,” Victoria’s Secret named her “sexiest female musician,” she made People Magazine’s most beautiful list, and was in Forbes “List of 100 Most Powerful Celebrities” this year.

That’s made her a target of tabloids. Last month she and actress/pop star Jessica Simpson denied they were feuding over how much contact Underwood has with her ex-boyfriend, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, now Simpson’s boyfriend.

“I used to read everything and it made me sad and stressed out, because I’m the kind of person who wants everybody to like me,” she said. “I’ve resorted to not reading it and not watching it.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.