Carrie Underwood Throws A Little Shade On Instagram

Carrie Underwood was spotted throwing just a little playful shade on her Instagram page this week, all in support of her fellow females in the world of country music. The star – who dropped her latest hit “The Champion” last week – recently liked a meme on the social media site which joked about male artists dominating on country radio.

Carrie fan @LiveASong captured a screenshot of the meme Underwood clicked the “like” button on and posted it to Twitter on January 15, which showed the country star had liked a photo that showed several men lining up to climb a ladder alongside the caption, “The charts when ten bro country singles get released in the same week.”

“Bro country” is a term used to describe tracks by male country artists such as Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan that tend to dominate on modern country radio and predominantly feature lyrics about women, partying, and alcohol.

Of course, Carrie liking the meme by Instagram user MusicCityMemes was all in good fun when it came to her fellow country stars, though the Twitter user joked in the caption, “So Carrie Underwood liked this meme on Instagram. We love a shady Queen!” alongside a winking face emoji.

But while it looks like the star – who only recently returned to the social media site for the first time since confirming she’d had 40 to 50 stitches to her face – was just having a little fun on the social media site this week, Carrie has been pretty vocal about the lack of support many female country artists get from country radio in the past.

Back in 2014, she spoke up about supporting her fellow women in an interview with Billboard, where she admitted that she thought the genre should have progressed further by now when it comes to showing support for female artists.

“I like to think things are getting better, but then I see stats and realize that women really do seem to get the short end,” she said three years ago, admitting that she thinks there’s still a bit of a double standard between the sexes within the industry.

“I don’t think women can get away with the partying, beer-drinking, hung-over, truck-driving kind of music that a lot of the guys have gotten away with lately,” Carrie added, telling the outlet that she didn’t think she’d have had much success in the industry if she hadn’t gotten her start by winning Season 4 of American Idol back in 2005.

But when Carrie’s not taking a playful jab at the country music scene on social media, she is celebrating the success of her latest single, the 2018 Super Bowl anthem, “The Champion.”

Earlier this week, Underwood celebrated the song, which also features a rap verse by Ludacris, shooting to the top of the iTunes chart after she officially dropped the track on January 12.

The song, which will be used by NBC on both their Super Bowl and Winter Olympics coverage in February, is still sitting at the top spot on the U.S. all-genre iTunes chart, prompting Underwood to write on Instagram on January 13, “Wow, so grateful!! Thank you.”