Carrie Underwood: Country Charts Are a ‘Boys Club’

Carrie Underwood's latest single, "Good Girl," from the current No. 1 album, Blown Away, is currently sitting pretty at No. 4 on the Billboard country singles charts. The Oklahoma native joins only a handful of female artists with Top 30 hits right now, including Miranda Lambert ("Over You") and Jana Kramer ("Why Ya Wanna"), who share space on a predominantly male-dominated chart. While that may seem like an outrage to one of music's most successful women, Carrie concedes it's more of a mixed blessing.

"I could totally lie right now and be like, 'I totally wish there were more [women on the charts],'" she admits to CMT. "I wish it was more accepted. I'm sure at some point we all feel a little ... 'oppressed' isn't the right word, but we're all part of this boys club. So maybe a little out of place. But the ones that we got are killing it, so maybe it's not about quantity. Maybe it's about quality. If us five or so can dominate, then I'm OK with that."

The superstar entertainer acknowledges she isn't concerned with whether or not her latest set of tunes is as successful as previous efforts.

"I don't know statistics, and I don't know what kind of songs people download more," she explains. "I just know what I like, and I know when I'm singing what feels good for me to sing and what songs I'd turn up on the radio and which ones I'd change. So I write for myself, I sing for myself, and if people like it, I guess they're a lot like me."

Now an accomplished songwriter, having contributed several of her own songs to her albums, Carrie says she's no longer concerned about her writing abilities.

"I'm not afraid to sound stupid anymore, which is always the biggest hump to overcome," she tells The Boot. "I also don't put that much pressure on myself to write everything. I don't think it's necessary. There are the best songwriters in the world right here in Nashville and I feel like I'd be doing myself a disservice, my album a disservice, and my fans a disservice to ignore that. It would be easy to sit down and write the whole album by myself, but it wouldn't be the best album that it could be."

Carrie will head out on her Blown Away tour later this year, with Hunter Hayes serving as her opening act. See a complete list of dates here.