Carrie Underwood, the American country musician, has received over 1.5 million views on a video clip of her singing 'How Great Thou Art', reports the Examiner. Carrie Underwood's YouTube video has gone viral after news of her powerful rendition began to spread over the Easter weekend.
In the video, country musicians such as The Judds and Sugarland are shown standing in awe, with some artists shaking their heads and wiping away the tears as Underwood performs on stage. The singer, who was performing the 2011 Academy Country Music Awards, then receives a prolonged standing ovation from the audience. The video was aired on CBS on Good Friday evening (22nd April 2011), prompting fans of the artist to immediately search for the video online. The song itself is a Christian hymn based on a Swedish poem by Carl Gustav Boberg. It was popularized by George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows and was voted second on a list of the favourite hymns of all time in a survey by Today's Christian magazine. Elvis Presley recorded the track for his second gospel LP in 1967 and later won a Grammy Award for 'Best Sacred Performance'.
Carrie Underwood released her third studio album 'Play On' in November 2009. The record debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 318,000 copies. It was Underwood's second album to enter at the top of the Billboard charts and her third to debut at the top of the Country Album charts.