A clip from one of Carrie Underwood’s performances has fans torn between where to look — her outfit or her vocals.
The country superstar belted out her hit “Before He Cheats” while hyping the crowd and signaling for audience participation in a video now making the rounds online.
But while her voice was doing what it always does, plenty of viewers admitted they were struggling to stay focused, thanks to a wardrobe malfunction that quickly became its own viral moment.
The clip, which surfaced via the Instagram page The Country Wire, features Underwood performing at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 4, 2024.
The singer’s glittery knitted silver-colored shawl was paired with a black tank top underneath, silver metallic shorts, and silver metallic heeled boots.
The “American Idol” season 4 winner received dozens of compliments on how great her legs looked in the shorts. But not everyone shared the same sentiment.
One person who didn’t seem to like them said, “She looks like she is wearing a silver diaper.”
Another pointed out, “Those damn diaper shorts are the worst and the filler is getting a little much……she use to be so beautiful.”
A few individuals suggested Underwood should have worn a skirt or denim shorts, including one who wrote, “Love Carrie, but lose those shorts, they’re not flattering.” Another typed, “Denim shorts would be better here! Just saying.”
A fifth person wanted Underwood to scrap the entire look. “Those clothes are not country. What is it with these ladies wearing hardly any clothes?” they noted.
This wasn’t the first time a pair of shorts gave Underwood some trouble onstage.
The 42-year-old had a wardrobe malfunction during a dance break routine at one of her Las Vegas Residency shows earlier this year in April while she was performing “Denim & Rhinestones.”
Underwood was dressed in a pink sequined corset and denim shorts with pink fringe panels on the side. At some point, the zipper on the back of her shorts either ripped or burst, creating a hole in the back of her shorts and leaving her backside exposed.
The vocalist kept smiling and dancing straight through it, never breaking stride. While her dancers briefly turned their backs to the crowd for part of the choreography, she stayed facing forward.
And when the routine required her to angle her body just a bit toward the audience, she casually lifted a hand to cover the small opening — a quick adjustment so seamless most viewers barely caught it the first time around.
In the next act, she addressed the incident with the concertgoers at the second-to-last show of her Las Vegas residency.
“Y’all want to hear a funny story,” Underwood said after doing a wardrobe change. “This is kind of embarrassing, but I was laughing and I want you to laugh too, so I’m going to embarrass myself. The last act, the zipper on the back of the little thing I was wearing — whoop! So I was laughing and running into people and I could not turn around. And I’m really sorry you guys had to stare at my booty for, like, two songs!”
But the outfit glitch wasn’t the only spotlight on Underwood lately. Just months ago, she surprised longtime fans when she swapped her signature platinum blonde hair for a darker, sandy-brown “bronde” hue — a shift she said was a return to her natural roots.
