Carrie Underwood marked a new milestone on Sunday,
revealing the first music video she’s filmed since a frightening accident in November left her with over 40 stitches to her face and a broken wrist.
The video for “Cry Pretty” — Underwood’s first single from her forthcoming sixth studio album — finds the star, 35, crying in the shower before making a triumphant return to the stage and handling the pressures of fame.
Though the clip features many close-ups of Underwood’s face as she cries, the singer looks flawless as she stares into the camera lens.
“I apologize if you don’t like what you see,” Underwood sings in the emotional tune. “But sometimes my emotions get the best of me / And falling apart is as human as it gets / You can’t hide it, you can’t fight what the truth is.”
Underwood chose to preview the video on ABC’s American Idol revival, making the event a homecoming of sorts for the country superstar — she was first introduced to the world during the original run’s fourth season on Fox in 2005.
“Watch @AmericanIdol tonight to get a worldwide exclusive look at my new music video for #CryPretty !! Live show starts at 8e|5p on @ABCNetwork,” Underwood tweeted Sunday, teasing the big moment.
Watch @AmericanIdol tonight to get a worldwide exclusive look at my new music video for #CryPretty !! Live show starts at 8e|5p on @ABCNetwork pic.twitter.com/0N1ApkK1FB
— Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) May 6, 2018
Underwood debuted the song on April 11 before singing it live for the first time during an emotional performance at the ACM Awards on April 15.
She previously released “The Champion,” a promotional single serving as the opening theme for NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl LII. in January, but Underwood remained silent about her frightening fall until April.
“I was taking the dogs out to go pee one last time, and I just — I tripped,” she said on iHeartRadio’s The Bobby Bones Show last month. “There was one step, and I didn’t let go of the leashes! Priorities! So that’s why my left hand’s fine. But I went to catch myself and I just missed a step.”
“If I had fallen anywhere else, I would have been perfectly fine. But it was one step that messed everything up,” she added.
Underwood broke her right wrist and injured her face around her mouth, with the scars slightly visible during the interview.
RELATED: From Hurt to Healed: Every Photo of Carrie Underwood Since Her Accident
“I thought I just busted my lip,” she later told Storme Warren on SiriusXM’s The Highway channel. “Then I walked inside and took the dog leashes off and took my coat off and went to go survey the damage and was like, ‘Oh, no!’ I’m acting very calm about it now, but … it wasn’t pretty. I chipped my tooth but it was just my skin, thank the Lord. Stitches and all that stuff.”
Beyond starting a new chapter in her career with her forthcoming album, also titled Cry Pretty, Underwood has also been getting back to her regular routine.
“I started resuming my life again, and going to the grocery store, and taking my kid to school and stuff like that, I was like, ‘Okay. Somebody’s going to creep on me at the grocery store and people are going to be like, ‘What happened?’ when they post it on Instagram,’ ” she said on The Highway channel.
And she hasn’t shied away from the spotlight, having recently led a special Mother’s Day workout with her mom and delivered a rousing rendition of the national anthem ahead of husband Mike Fisher’s hockey game with the Nashville Predators.
